





















































































































































































































































THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-BOY 





















. 



















- 






















































J 






V-. 












NOT THERE, NOT THERE, MY CHILD ! ” 






The Hoosier School-Boy 


BY 

EDWARD EGGLESTON 

ll 


Edition Specially Arranged by the Author for Use as a Reader 
in Schools, and with the Addition of Definitions 
and Occasional Notes and Questions 




NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 

1890 

^ II 




Copyright, 1882, 1890, by 

EDWARD EGGLESTON 


TROW'S • 

PRINTiNG AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, 

NEW YORK. 


CONTENTS 


The New Scholar, 

CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

King Milkmaid, . 

CHAPTER II. 

Answering Back, . 

CHAPTER III. 

CHAPTER IV. 


Little Christopher Columbus, 17 


Whiling Away Time, 

CHAPTER V. 

A Battle, 

CHAPTER VI. 

24 

CHAPTER VII. 


Hat-ball and Bull-pen, 29 

CHAPTER VIII. 


The Defender, 


35 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 

Pigeon Pot-pie, 40 

CHAPTER X. 

Explosions, 44 

CHAPTER XL 

Jack and His Mother, 49 

CHAPTER XII. 

Columbus and His Friends, 51 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Greenbank Wakes Up, 57 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Frofessor Susan, 60 

CHAPTER XV. 

Crowing After Victory, 64 

CHAPTER XVI. 

An Attempt to Collect, . . 69 

CHAPTER XVII. 

An Exploring Expedition, 74 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Housekeeping Experiences, 77 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Ghosts, 83 



CONTENTS. 



vii 

The Return Home, 

CHAPTER XX. 

* 


PAGE 

. 88 

CHAPTER XXI. 

A Foot-race for Money, 

. 

. 

. 94 

The New Teacher, 

CHAPTER XXII. 



. IOI 

Chasing the Fox, 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

• 


M 

O 

Called to Account, 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

• 

# 

. no 

An Apology, . 

CHAPTER XXV. 


# 

. 114 


CHAPTER XXVI. 




King’s Base and a Spelling-lesson, 

• 

• 

. 119 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Unclaimed Top-strings, 

# 

• 

. 121 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 





The Last Day of School, and the Last Chapter of the 
Story, 


125 




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

“Not There, Not There, My Child!” . . . Fi-ontispiece. 


Jack Amusing the Small Boys with Stories of Hunting, 
Fishing, and Frontier Adventure, 21 


“Cousin Sukey,” said Little Columbus, “I want to ask a 

FAVOR OF YOU,” 6 1 


“The Landing of Christopher Columbus,” . . . .81 


Bob Holliday Carries Home His Friend, 


. 129 


' 









, 






























I 











THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE NEW SCHOLAR. 

While the larger boys in the village school of Green- 
bank were having a game of “ three hole cat” before 
school-time, there appeared on the playground a strange 
boy, carrying two books, a slate, and an atlas under his 
arm. 

He was evidently from the country, for he wore a suit 
of brown jeans, or woollen homespun, made up in the 
natural color of the “ black ” sheep, as we call it. He 
shyly sidled up to the school-house door, and looked 
doubtfully at the boys who were playing ; watching the 
familiar game as though he had never seen it before. 

The boys who had the “ paddles ” were standing on 
three bases, while three others stood each behind a base 
and tossed the ball round the triangle from one hole or 
base to another. The new-comer soon perceived that, if 
one with a paddle, or bat, struck at the ball and missed it, 
and the ball was caught directly, or “at the first bounce,” 
he gave up his bat to the one who had “caught him out.” 
When the ball was struck, it was called a “ tick,” and when 
there was a tick, all the batters were obliged to run one 
base to the left, and then the ball thrown between a batter 
and the base to which he was running “ crossed him out,” 


2 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY . 


and obliged him to give up his “ paddle ” to the one who 
threw the ball. 

“ Four hole cat,” “ two hole cat,” and “ five hole cat ” 
are, as everybody knows, played in the same way, the 
number of bases or holes increasing with the addition of 
each pair of players. 

It is probable that the game was once — some hundreds 
of years ago, maybe — called “ three hole catch,” and that 
the name was gradually corrupted into “ three hole cat,” 
as it is still called in the interior States. It is, no doubt, 
an early form of our present game of base-ball. 

It was this game which the new boy watched, trying to 
get an inkling of how it was played. He stood by the 
school-house door, and the girls who came in were obliged 
to pass near him. Each of them stopped to scrape her 
shoes, or rather the girls remembered the foot-scraper be- 
cause they were curious to see the new-comer. They cast 
furtive glances at him, noting his new suit of brown 
clothes, his geography and atlas, his arithmetic, and, last 
of all, his face. 

“ There’s a new scholar,” said Peter Rose, or, as he was 
called, “ Pewee ” Rose, a stout and stocky boy of fourteen, 
who had just been caught out by another. 

“ I say, Greeny, how did you get so brown ? ” called out 
Will Riley, a rather large, loose-jointed fellow. 

Of course, all the boys laughed at this. Boys will some- 
times laugh at anyone suffering torture, whether the vic- 
tim be a persecuted cat or a persecuted boy. The new 
boy made no answer, but Joanna Merwin, who, just at that 
moment, happened to be scraping her shoes, saw that he 
grew red in the face with a quick flush of anger. 

“ Don’t stand there, Greeny, or the cows ’ll eat you up ! ” 
called Riley, as he came round again to the base nearest 
to the school-house. 

Why the boys should have been amused at this speech, 


THE NEW SCHOLAR. 


3 


the new scholar could not tell — the joke was neither new 
nor witty — only impudent and coarse. But the little boys 
about the door giggled. 

“ It’s a pity something wouldn’t eat you, Will Riley — 
you are good for nothing but to be mean.” This sharp 
speech came from a rather tali and graceful girl of sixteen, 
who came up at the time, and who saw the annoyance of 
the new boy at Riley’s insulting words. Of course the 
boys laughed again. It was rare sport to hear pretty 
Susan Lanham “ take down ” the impudent Riley. 

“ The bees will never eat you for honey, Susan,” said Will. 

Susan met the titter of the playground with a quick 
flush of temper and a fine look of scorn. 

“ Nothing would eat you, Will, unless, maybe, a turkey- 
buzzard, and a very hungry one at that.” 

This sharp retort was uttered with a merry laugh of 
ridicule, and a graceful toss of the head, as the mischiev- 
ous girl passed into the school-house. 

“ That settles you, Will,” said Pewee Rose. And Bob 
Holliday began singing, to a doleful tune : 

“ Poor old Pidy, 

She died last Friday. 

Just then, the stern face of Mr. Ball, the master, ap- 
peared at the door ; he rapped sharply with his ferule, and 
called : “ Books, books, books ! ” The bats were dropped, 
and the boys and girls began streaming into the school, 
but some of the boys managed to nudge Riley, saying : 

“ Poor old creetur, 

The turkey-buzzards eat her,” 


and such like soft and sweet speeches. Riley was vexed 
and angry, but nobody was afraid of him, for a boy may 
be both big and mean and yet lack courage. 


4 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


The new boy did not go in at once, but stood silently 
and faced the inquiring looks of the procession of boys as 
they filed into the school-room with their faces flushed 
from the exercise and excitement of the game. 

“ I can thrash him easy,” thought Pewee Rose. 

“ He isn’t a fellow to back down easily,” said Harvey 
Collins to his next neighbor. 

Only good-natured, rough Bob Holliday stopped and 
spoke to the new-comer a friendly word. All that he 
said was “Hello!” But how much a boy can put into 
that word “Hello!” Bob put his whole heart into it, and 
there was no boy in the school that had a bigger heart, 
a bigger hand, or half so big a foot as Bob Holliday. 

The village school-house was a long one built of red 
brick. It had taken the place of the old log institution 
in which one generation of Greenbank children had 
learned reading, writing, and Webster’s spelling-book. 
There were long, continuous writing-tables down the sides 
of the room, with backless benches, so arranged that when 
the pupil was writing his face was turned toward the wall — 
there was a door at each end, and a box-stove stood in the 
middle of the room, surrounded by a rectangle of four 
backless benches. These benches were for the little fel- 
lows who did not write, and for others when the cold 
should drive them nearer the stove. 

The very worshipful master sat at the east end of the 
room, at one side of the door ; there was a blackboard 
at the other side of the door. Some of the older schol- 
ars, who could afford private desks with lids to them, suit- 
able for concealing smuggled apples and maple-sugar, 
had places at the other end of the room from the master. 
This arrangement was convenient for quiet study, for 
talking on the fingers by signs, for munching apples or 
gingerbread, and for passing little notes between the boys 
and girls. 


THE NEW SCHOLAR. 


5 


When the school had settled a little, the master struck 
a sharp blow on his desk for silence, and looked fiercely 
around the room, eager to find a culprit on whom to 
wreak his ill-humor. Mr. Ball was one of those old-fash- 
ioned teachers who gave the impression that he would 
rather beat a boy than not, and would even like to eat 
one, if he could find a good excuse. His eye lit upon the 
new scholar. 

“ Come here,” he said, severely, and then he took his 
seat. 

The new boy walked timidly up to a place in front of 
the master’s desk. He was not handsome, his face was 
thin, his eyebrows were prominent, his mouth was rather 
large and good-humored, and there was that shy twinkle 
about the corners of his eyes which always marks a fun- 
loving spirit. But his was a serious, fine-grained face, 
with marks of suffering in it, and he had the air of having 
been once a strong fellow ; of late, evidently, shaken to 
pieces by the ague. 

“Where do you live ?” demanded Mr. Ball. 

“ On Ferry Street.” 

“What do they call you ?” This was said with a con- 
temptuous, rasping inflection that irritated the new 
scholar. His eyes twinkled, partly with annoyance and 
partly with mischief. 

“ They call me Jack, for the mqst part,” — then catching 
the titter that came from the- girls’ side of the room, and 
frightened by the rising hurricane on the master’s face, he 
added quickly : “ My name is John Dudley, sir.” 

“Don’t you try to show your smartness on me, young 
man. You are a new-comer, and I let you off this time. 
Answer me that way again, and you will remember it as 
long as you live.” And the master glared at him like a 
savage bull about to toss somebody over a fence. 

The new boy turned pale, and dropped his head. 


6 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY, 


“ How old are you ? ” “ Thirteen.” 

“ Have you ever been to school ? ” “ Three months.” 

“ Three months. Do you know how to read ? ” 

“ Yes, sir,” with a smile. 

“ Can you cipher ? ” “ Yes, sir.” 

“ In multiplication ? ” “ Yes, sir.” 

“ Long division ? ” 

“ Yes, sir ; I’ve been half through fractions.” 

“ You said you’d been to school but three months ! ” 

“ My father taught me.” 

There was just a touch of pride in his voice as he said 
this — a sense of something superior about his father. 
This bit of pride angered the master, who liked to be 
thought to have a monopoly of all the knowledge in the 
town. 

“ Where have you been living ? ” 

“In the Indian Reserve, of late ; I was born in Cincin- 
nati.” 

“ I didn’t ask you where you were born. When I ask 
you a question, answer that and no more.” 

“Yes, sir.” There was a touch of something in the 
tone of this reply that amused the school, and that made 
the master look up quickly and suspiciously at Jack 
Dudley, but the expression on Jack’s face was as inno- 
cent as that of a cat who has just lapped the cream off the 
milk. 

Pronounce : Torture (tor'-chur). Base, not baste. Institution, 
sound the u long like the word you, not in-sti-too-tion. Cincinnati 
(sin-sin-nat-ty), not sin-sin-nat-ah. Pronounce carefully, but quickly, the 
words “shyly sidled.” 

Inkling, a notion, a little knowledge. Torture, pain deliberately in- 
flicted by one person upon another, or by a person on a brute. Formerly, 
persons accused of crime were made to suffer torture for the purpose of 
forcing them to confess. Pidy, a familiar, old-fashioned name for a spot- 
ted or “pidied” cow. Turkey-buzzard, a large vulture common in all 


KING MILKMAID. 


7 


but the most northern parts of the United States. Box-stove, an old- 
fashioned stove, in shape somewhat like a box. Rectangle, a four-sided 
figure with right angles for corners. Culprit, a guilty person. Rasping, 
harsh, grating like the sound made by a rasp. Inflection, the rise or fall 
of the voice in speaking. Monopoly, the sole power of selling any article, 
here used playfully to express the jealousy which the old master felt of any 
reputation for knowledge on the part of anyone else. 

Of what kind of wool were brown jeans made ? What modern game 
may have come from “three hole cat?” What do you understand by 
long division ? Draw a rectangle. 


CHAPTER II. 

KING MILKMAID. 

Pewee Rose, whose proper name was Peter Rose, had 
also the nickname of King Pewee. He was about four- 
teen years old, square built and active, of great strength 
for his size, and very proud of the fact that no boy in town 
cared to attack him. He was not bad-tempered, but he 
loved to be master, and there were a set of flatterers who 
followed him, like jackals about a lion. 

As often happens, Nature had built for King Pewee a 
very fine body, but had forgotten to give him any mind to 
speak of. In any kind of chaff or banter, at any sort of 
talk or play where a good head was worth more than a 
strong arm and a broad back, King Pewee was sure to have 
the worst of it. A very convenient partnership had there- 
fore grown up between him and Will Riley. Riley had 
muscle enough, but Nature had made him mean spirit- 
ed. He had — not exactly wit — but a facility in using his 
tongue, which he found some difficulty in displaying, 
through fear of other boys’ fists. By forming a friendship 
with Pewee Rose, the two managed to keep in fear the 
greater part of the school. Will’s rough tongue, together 


8 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


with Pewee’s rude fists, were enough to bully almost any 
boy. They let Harvey Collins alone, because he was 
older, and, keeping to himself, awed them by his dignity ; 
good-natured Bob Holliday, also, was big enough to take 
care of himself. But the rest were all as much afraid of 
Pewee as they were of the master, and as Riley managed 
Pewee, it behooved them to be afraid of the prime min- 
ister, Riley, as well as of King Pewee. 

From the first day that Jack Dudley entered the school, 
dressed in brown jeans, Will Riley marked him for a vic- 
tim. The air of refinement about his face showed him to 
be a suitable person for teasing. 

Riley called him “milksop,” and “sap-head;” words 
which seemed to the dull intellect of King Pewee exceed- 
ingly witty. And as Pewee was Riley’s defender, he felt 
as proud of these rude nicknames as he would had he in- 
vented them and taken out a patent. 

But Riley’s greatest stroke of wit came one morning 
when he caught Jack Dudley milking the cow. In the 
village of Greenbank, milking a cow was regarded as a 
woman’s work ; and foolish men and boys are like savages 
— very much ashamed to be found doing a woman’s work. 
Fools always think something else more disgraceful than 
idleness. So, having seen Jack milking, Riley came to 
school happy. He had an arrow to shoot that would give 
great delight to the small boys. 

“Good-morning, milkmaid!” he said to Jack Dudley, 
as he entered the school-house before school. “ You milk 
the cow at your house, do you ? Where’s your apron ?” 

“ Oh-h ! Milkmaid! milkmaid! That’s a good one,” 
chimed in Pewee Rose and all his set. 

Jack changed color. 

“Well, what if I do milk my mother’s cow! I don’t 
milk anybody’s cow but ours, do I ? Do you think I’m 
ashamed of it ? I’d be ashamed not to. I can ” — but he 


KING MILKMAID. 


9 


stopped a minute and blushed — “ I can wash dishes, and 
make good pancakes, too. Now if you want to make fun, 
why, make fun. I don’t care.” But he did care, else why 
should his voice choke in that way ? 

“ Oh, girl-boy ; a pretty girl-boy you are ” but here 

Will Riley stopped and stammered. There, right in front 
of him, was the smiling face of Susan Lanham, with a look 
in it which made him suddenly remember something. 
Susan had heard all the conversation, and now she came 
around in front of Will, while all the other girls clustered 
about her with a vague expectation of sport. 

“ Come, Pewee, let’s play ball,” said Will. 

“Ah, you’re running away, now ; you’re afraid of a girl,” 
said Susan, with a cutting little laugh, and a toss of her 
black curls over her shoulder. 

Will had already started for the ball-ground, but at this 
taunt he turned back, thrust his hands into his pockets, 
put on a swagger, and stammered : “No, I’m not afraid of 
a girl, either.” 

“ That’s about all that he isn’t afraid of,” said Bob Hol- 
liday. 

“ Oh ! you’re not afraid of a girl ? ” said Susan. “ What 
did you run away for, when you saw me ? You know that 
Pewee won’t fight a girl. You’re afraid of anybody that 
Pewee can’t whip.” 

“You’ve got an awful tongue, Susan. We’ll call you 
Sassy Susan,” said Will, laughing at his own joke. 

“Oh, it isn’t my tongue you’re afraid of now. You 
know I can tell on you. I saw you drive your cow into 
the stable last week. You were ashamed to milk outside, 
but you looked all around ” 

“1 didn’t do it. How could you see? It was dark,” 
and Will giggled foolishly, seeing all at once that he had 
betrayed himself. 

“ It was nearly dark, but I happened to be where I 


IO 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


could see. And as I was coming back, a few minutes 
after, I saw you come out with a pail of milk, and look 
around you like a sneak-thief. You saw me and hurried 
away. You are such a coward that you are ashamed to do 
a little honest work. Milkmaid! Girl-boy ! Coward ! And 
Pewee Rose lets you lead him around by the nose ! ” 

“ You’d better be careful what you say, Susan,” said 
Pewee, threateningly. 

“You won’t touch me. You go about bullying little 
boys, and calling yourself King Pewee, but you can’t do a 
sum in long division, nor in short subtraction, for that 
matter, and you let fellows like Riley make a fool of you. 
Your father’s poor, and your mother can’t keep a girl, and 
you ought to be ashamed to let her milk the cow. Who 
milked your cow this morning, Pewee ?” 

“I don’t know,” said the king, looking like the king’s 
fool. 

“You did it,” said Susan. “Don’t deny it. Then you 
come here and call a strange boy a milkmaid ! ” 

“Well, I didn’t milk in the street, anyway, and he did.” 
At this, all laughed aloud, and Susan’s victory was com- 
plete. She only said, with a pretty toss of her head, as 
she turned away : “ King Milkmaid ! ” 

Pewee found the nickname likely to stick. He was 
obliged to declare on the playground the next day, that 
he would “ thrash ” any boy that said anything about milk- 
maids. After that, he heard no more of it. But one 
morning he found “King Milkmaid” written on the door 
of his father’s cow-stable. Some boy who dared not attack 
Pewee, had vented his irritation by writing the hateful 
words on the stable, and on the fence-corners near the 
school-house, and even on the blackboard. 

Pewee could not fight with Susan Lanham, but he made 
up his mind to punish the new scholar when he should 
have a chance. He must give somebody a beating. 


( 

A NS WE RING BA CK. 1 1 

Pronounce : Jackal (jak-awl). Say rapidly and distinctly, “ Put on 
a swagger and stammered.” 

Jackal, a species of wild dog found in the warmer parts of Asia and 
Africa. It dwells in burrows and caves, and often follows the lion for the 
sake of the bits it can pick up from his leavings. Chaff, light or playful 
talk. Banter, talk in which one person jokes at the expense of another. 
Facility, ease, readiness. Dignity, here used in the sense of reserve or 
loftiness of manner. Behooved, was fit or necessary for. Milksop, a 
piece of bread dipped in milk — used as a nickname for a weak or girlish 
boy. Sap-head, a nickname having reference to the sap or soft wood in 
timber. Swagger, an insolent manner of walking. Betrayed himself, 
to betray one's self is to reveal that which one desires to keep secret. 

Is “sassy” a correct word? What is the right word for it? Why did 
Will Riley wish to avoid talking to Susan Lanham ? Are people who 
ridicule others fond of being laughed at themselves? 


CHAPTER III. 

ANSWERING BACK. 

It is hard for one boy to make a fight. Even your bully 
does not like to “pitch on” an inoffensive schoolmate. 
You remember JE sop’s fable of the wolf and the lamb, and 
what pains the wolf took to pick a quarrel with the lamb. 
It was a little hard for Pewee to fight with a boy w T ho 
walked quietly to and from the school, without giving any- 
body cause for offence. 

But the chief reason why Pewee did not attack him with 
his fists was that both he and Riley had found out that 
Jack Dudley could help them over a hard place in their 
lessons better than anybody else. And notwithstanding 
their continual persecution of Jack, they were mean 
enough to ask his assistance ; and he, hoping to bring about 
peace by good-nature, helped them to get out their geog- 
raphy and arithmetic almost every day. Unable to appre- 
ciate this, they were both convinced that Jack only did it 


12 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


because he was afraid of them, and as they found it rare 
sport to abuse him, they kept it up. By their influence 
Jack was shut out of the plays. A greenhorn would spoil 
the game, they said. What did a boy that had lived on 
Wildcat Creek, in the Indian Reserve, know about playing 
bull-pen, or prisoner’s base, or shinny ? If he was brought 
in, they would go out. 

But the girls, and the small boys, and good-hearted Bob 
Holliday liked Jack’s company very much. Yet, Jack was 
a boy, and he often longed to play games with the others. 
He felt very sure that he could dodge and run in “bull- 
pen ” as well as any of them. He was very tired of Riley’s 
continual ridicule, which grew worse as Riley saw in him 
a rival in influence with the smaller boys. 

“Catch Will alone sometimes,” said Bob Holliday, 
“when Pewee isn’t with him, and then thrash him. He’ll 
back right down if you bristle up to him. If Pewee makes 
a fuss about it, I’ll look after Pewee. I’m bigger than he 
is, and he won’t fight with me. What do you say ?” 

“ I sna’n’t fight unless I have to.” 

“Afraid ?” asked Bob, laughing. 

“It isn’t that. I don’t think I’m much afraid, although 
I don’t like to be pounded or to pound anybody. I think 
I’d rather be whipped than to be made fun of, though. 
But my father used to say that people who fight generally 
do so because they are afraid of somebody else, more than 
they are of the one they fight with.” 

“ I believe that’s a fact,” said Bob. “But Riley aches 
for a good thrashing.” 

“I know that, and I feel like giving him one, or taking 
one myself, and I think I shall fight him before I’ve 
done. But father used to say that fists could never settle 
between right and wrong. They only show which is the 
stronger, and it is generally the mean one that gets the 
best of it.” 


ANSWERING BACK. 


!3 


“That’s as sure as shootin’,” said Bob. “ Pewee could 
use you up. Pewee thinks he’s the king, but laws ! lie’s 
only Riley’s bull-dog. Riley is afraid of him, but he man- 
ages to keep the dog on his side all the time.” 

“My father used to say,” said Jack, “that brutes could 
fight with force, but men ought to use their wits.” 

“You seem to think a good deal of what your father 
says — like it was your Bible, you know.” 

“ My father’s dead,” replied Jack. 

“ Oh, that’s why. Boys don’t always pay attention to 
what their father says when he’s alive.” 

“ Oh, but then my father was ” Here Jack checked 

himself, for fear of seeming to boast. “You see,” he went 
on, “ my father knew a great deal. He was so busy with 
his books that he lost ’most all his money, and then we 
moved to the Indian Reserve, and there he took the fever 
and died ; and then we came down here, where we owned 
a house, so that I could go to school.” 

“ Why don’t you give Will Riley as good as he sends?” 
said Bob, wishing to get away from melancholy subjects. 
“ You have got as good a tongue as his.” 

“ I haven’t his stock of bad words, though.” 

“ You’ve got a power of fun in you, though — you keep 
everybody laughing when you want to, and if you’d only 
turn the pumps on him once, he’d howl like a yellow dog 
that’s had a quart o’ hot suds poured over him out of a 
neighbor’s window. Use your wits, like your father said. 
You’ve lived in the woods till you're as shy as a flying- 
squirrel. All you’ve got to do is to talk up and take it 
rough and tumble, like the rest of the world. Riley can’t 
bear to be laughed at, and you can make him ridiculous 
as easy as not.” 

The next day, at the noon recess, about the time that 
Jack had finished helping Bob Holliday to find some places 
on the map, there came up a little shower, and the boys 


14 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


took refuge in the school-house. They must have some 
amusement, so Riley began his old abuse. 

“Well, greenhorn from the Wildcat, where’s the black 
sheep you stole that suit of clothes from ?” 

“ I hear him bleat now,” said Jack — “ about the blackest 
sheep I have ever seen.” 

“ You have heard the truth for once, Riley,” said Bob 
Holliday. 

Riley, who was as vain as a peacock, was very much 
mortified by the shout of applause with which this little 
retort of Jack’s was greeted. It was not a case in which 
he could call in King Pewee. The king, for his part, shut 
up his fists and looked silly, while Jack took courage to 
•keep up the battle. 

But Riley tried again. 

“ I say, Wildcat, you think you’re smart, but you’re a 
double-distilled idiot, and haven’t got brains enough to be 
sensible of your misery.” 

This kind of outburst on Riley’s part always brought a 
laugh from the school. But before the laugh had died 
down, Jack Dudley took the word, saying, in a dry and 
quizzical way : 

“ Don’t you try to claim kin with me that way, Riley. 
No use ; I won’t stand it. I don’t belong to your family. 
I’m neither a fool nor a coward.” 

“ Hurrah ! ” shouted Bob Holliday, bringing down first 
one and then the other of his big feet on the floor. “ It’s 
your put-in now, Riley.” 

> “Don’t be backward in coming forward, Will, as the 
Irish priest said to his people,” came from grave Harvey 
Collins, who here looked up from his book, thoroughly en- 
joying the bully’s discomfiture. 

“That’s awfully good,” said Joanna Merwin, clasping 
her hands and giggling with delight. 

King Pewee doubled up his fists and looked at Riley to 


ANSWERING BACK. 


J 5 


see if he ought to try his sort of wit on Jack. If a frog, 
being pelted to death by cruel boys, should turn and pelt 
them again, they could not be more surprised than were 
Riley and King Pewee at Jack’s repartees. 

“ You’d better be careful what you say to Will Riley,” 
said Pewee. “ I stand by him.” 

But Jack’s blood was up now, and he was not to be scared. 

“All the more shame to him,” said Jack. “Look at me, 
shaken all to pieces with the fever and ague on the Wild- 
cat, and look at that great big, bony coward of a Riley. 
I’ve done him no harm, but he wants to abuse me, and he’s 
afraid of me. He daren’t touch me. He has to coax you 
to stand by him, to protect him from poor little me. He’s 
a great big ” 

“ Calf,” broke in Bob Holliday, with a laugh. 

“You’d better be careful,” said Pewee to Jack, rising to 
his feet. “I stand by Riley.” 

“Will you defend him if I hit him ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“Well, then, I won’t hit him. But you don’t mean that 
he is to abuse me, while I am not allowed to answer back 
a word ? ” 

“ Well ” said Pewee, hesitatingly. 

“Well,” said Bob Holliday, hotly, “ I say that Jack has 
just as good a right to talk with his tongue as Riley. 
Stand by Riley if he’s hit, Pewee ; he needs it. But don’t 
you try to shut up Jack.” And Bob got up and put his 
broad hand on Jack’s shoulder. Nobody had ever seen 
the big fellow angry before, and the excitement was very 
great. The girls clapped their hands. 

“Good for you, Bob, I say,” came from Susan Lanham, 
and poor ungainly Bob blushed to his hair to find himself 
the hero of the girls. 

“ I don’t mean to shut up Jack,” said Pewee, looking at 
Bob’s size, “but I stand by Riley.” 


i6 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


“ Well, do your standing sitting down, then,” said Susan. 
“ I’ll get a milking-stool for you, if that’ll keep you quiet.” 

It was well that the master came in just then, or Fewee 
would have had to fight somebody or burst. 


Pronounce : Sure (shure), not shore. Bleat (bleet), not blate nor 
blat as pronounced in different parts of the country. Shooting, note the 
common error of people who drop the letter g from the end of words end- 
ing in ing. Ridiculous, pronounce the u long, not as though spelled 
“ redikelous. ” Discomfiture (dis-cum'-fit-ure), be careful not to say as 
some do, discumforture, nor discumfitoor. Repartee (rep- ar- tee'). 

Inoffensive, harmless, not doing anything to offend. Retort, a severe 
reply. Double-distilled, said with reference to the distilling of liquors 
in order to increase their strength. Quizzical, comical, amusing. Dis- 
comfiture, defeat. Repartee, a witty reply. Ungainly, clumsy, awk- 
ward. 

What is the meaning of the expression “ as sure as shooting ? ” Why do 
people say “as vain as a peacock?” Is “power of fun ” a correct expres- 
sion? Tell the story of the wolf that picked a quarrel with the lamb? 
(A lamb came down to a clear stream to satisfy his thirst. A hungry wolf 
came along looking for something to eat. “How do you dare to make 
the water muddy that I have to drink ?” he said to the lamb ; “ you shall 
suffer for your insolence.” “ Do not be angry,” said the lamb, “ but con- 
sider that I am full twenty yards farther down the stream than your 
majesty, and that I could not by any possibility disturb the water where 
you are drinking.” “You have disturbed it,” answered the cruel beast, 
“ and besides I know that you spoke ill of me last year.” “How could I 
speak ill of you last year ? ” said the lamb ; “lam not a year old.” “ If it 
wasn’t you, it was your brother,” said the wolf. “I have no brother.” 
“Then it was some of your folks,” said the wolf, “for you are always 
hard on me — you, and your shepherd, and your dogs.” Whereupon he 
¥ carried the lamb off and ate him up.) 


LITTLE CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 


1 7 


CHAPTER IV. 

LITTLE CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

Jack’s life in school was much more endurable now 
that he had a friend in Bob Holliday. Bob had spent • 
his time in hard work and in rough surroundings, but he 
had a gentleman’s soul, although his manners and speech 
were rude. More and more Jack found himself drawn to 
him. Harvey Collins asked Jack to walk down to the 
river-bank with him at recess. Both Harvey and Bob 
soon liked Jack, who found himself no longer lonely. 
The girls also sought his advice about their lessons, and 
the younger boys were inclined to come over to his 
side. 

As winter came on, country boys, anxious to learn some- 
thing about “ reading, writing, and ciphering,” came into 
the school. Each of these new-comers had to go through 
a certain amount of teasing from Riley and of bullying 
from Pewee. 

One frosty morning in December there appeared among 
the new scholars a strange little fellow, with a large head, 
long straight hair, an emaciated body, and legs that looked 
like reeds, they were so slender. His clothes were worn 
and patched, and he had the look of having been frost- 
bitten. He could not have been more than ten years old, 
to judge by his size, but there was a look of premature 
oldness in his face. 

“ Come here ! ” said the master, when he caught sight 
of him. “ What is your name ? ” And Mr. Ball took out 
his book to register the new-comer, with much the same 
relish that the Giant Despair showed when he had bagged 
a fresh pilgrim. 


2 


18 THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 

“Columbus Risdale.” The new-comer spoke in a shrill, 
piping voice, as strange as his weird face and withered 
body. 

“Is that your full name ? ” asked the master. 

“ No, sir,” piped the strange little creature. 

“Give your full name,” said Mr. Ball, sternly. 

“ My name is Christopher Columbus George Washing- 
ton Marquis de Lafayette Risdale.” The poor lad was 
the victim of that mania which some people have for 
“ naming after ” great men. His little shrunken body and 
high, piping voice made his name seem so incongruous 
that all the school tittered, and many laughed outright. 
But the dignified and eccentric little fellow did not ob- 
serve it. 

“ Can you read ? ” 

“Yes, sir,” squeaked the lad, more shrilly than ever. 

“Umph,” said the master, with a look of doubt on his 
face. “In the first reader ?” 

“ No, sir ; in the fourth reader.” 

Even the master could not conceal his look of astonish- 
ment at this claim. At that day, the fourth-reader class 
was the highest in the school, and contained only the 
largest scholars. The school laughed at the bare notion 
of little Christopher Columbus reading in the fourth 
reader, and the little fellow looked around the room, puz- 
zled to guess the cause of the merriment. 

“We’ll try you,” said the master, with suspicion. When 
the fourth-reader class was called, and Harvey Collins and 
Susan Lanham and some others of the nearly grown-up 
pupils came forward, with Jack Dudley as quite the young- 
est of the class, the great-eyed, emaciated little Columbus 
Risdale picked himself up on his pipe-stems and took his 
place at the end of this row. 

It was too funny for anything ! 

Will Riley and Pewee and other large scholars, who 


LITTLE CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 


19 


were yet reading in that old McGuffey’s Third Reader, 
which had a solitary picture of Bonaparte crossing the 
Alps, looked with no kindly eyes on this preposterous in- 
fant in the class ahead of them. 

The piece to be read was the poem of Mrs. Hemans’s 
called “The Better Land.” Poems like this one are rather 
out of fashion nowadays, and people are inclined to laugh 
a little at Mrs. Hemans. But thirty years ago her relig- 
ious and sentimental poetry was greatly esteemed. This 
’ one presented no difficulty to the readers. In that day, 
little or no attention was paid to inflection — the main en- 
deavor being to pronounce the words without hesitation 
or slip, and to “ mind the stops.” Each one of the class 
read a stanza ending with a line : 

“Not there, not there, my child ! ” 

The poem was exhausted before all had read, so that it 
was necessary to begin over again in order to give each 
one his turn. All waited to hear the little Columbus read. 
When it came his turn, the school was as still as death. 
The master, wishing to test him, told him, with something 
like a sneer, that he could read three stanzas, or “verses,” 
as Mr. Ball called them. 

The little chap squared his toes, threw his head back, 
and more fluently even than the rest, he read, in his shrill, 
eager voice, the remaining lines, winding up each stanza 
in a condescending tone, as he read : 

“Not there, not there, my child ! ” 

The effect of this from the hundred-year-old baby was 
so striking and so ludicrous that everybody was amused, 
while all were surprised at the excellence of his reading. 
The master proceeded, however, to strike one or two of 
the boys for laughing. 


20 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


When recess-time arrived, Susan Lanham came to Jack 
with a request. 

“ I wish you’d look after little Lummy Risdale. He’s a 
sort of cousin of my mother’s. He is as innocent and help- 
less as the babes in the wood.” 

“ I’ll take care of him,” said Jack. 

So he took the little fellow walking away from the 
school-house ; Will Riley and some of the others calling 
after them : “Not there, not there, my child ! ” 

But Columbus did not lay their taunts to heart. He 
was soon busy talking to Jack about things in the country, 
and things in town. On their return, Riley, crying out : 
“Not there, my child ! ” threw a snow-ball from a dis- 
tance of ten feet, and struck the poor little Christopher 
Columbus George Washington Lafayette so severe a blow 
as to throw him off his feet. Ouick as a flash, Jack 
charged on Riley, and sent a snow-ball into his face. An 
instant later, he tripped him with his foot and rolled the 
big, scared fellow into the snow and washed his face well, 
leaving half a snow-bank down his back. 

“What makes you so savage?” whined Riley. “I 
didn’t snow-ball you.” And Riley looked around for 
Pewee, who was on the other side of the school-house, and 
out of sight of the scuffle. 

“No, you daren’t snowball me,” said Jack, squeezing 
another ball and throwing it into Riley’s shirt-front with a 
certainty of aim that showed that he knew how to play 
ball. “Take that one, too, and if you bother Lum Risdale 
again, I’ll make you pay for it. Take a boy of your size.” 
And with that he moulded yet another ball, but Riley re- 
treated to the other side of the school-house. 

Pronounce : Emaciated, (e-ma'-shi-a-ted). Pre-ma-ture' (not pre- 
ma-toor). Re-cess', not re'-cess. Lu-di'-erous, not lu-dik'-er-ous. 

Emaciated, lean, having little flesh. Premature, come before its 




JACK AMUSING THE SMALL BOYS WITH STORIES OK HUNTING, FISHING, AND FRONTIER ADVENTURE 










WHILING AWAY TIME . 


21 


time. Incongruous, unsuitable. Eccentric, odd. Preposterous, ab- 
surd, monstrous. Condescending, a condescending tone is such a one 
as might be used to a younger person, or to an inferior. Ludicrous, of a 
character to excite laughter. Pilgrim, one who travels for a religious 
purpose. 

Who was the giant Despair ? [In Bunyan’s famous allegory called 
“The Pilgrim’s Progress,” the giant Despair is represented as having 
a stronghold by the roadside called “ Doubting Castle,” in which he shut 
up all the pilgrims he could capture.] 

What is meant by Bob’s having a gentlemanly soul though his manners 
were rude ? Is anything more than manners necessary to form a gentle- 
man ? What great men was little Lummy Risdale named for ? What 
did Christopher Columbus do to make himself remembered ? What nota- 
ble thing did Washington do ? Who was La Fayette ? What is meant 
by “picked himself up on his pipe-stems?” What do you know about 
the story of “ The Babes in the Wood? ” What is meant by “minding the 
stops ” in reading ? 


CHAPTER V. 

WHILING AWAY TIME. 

Excluded from the plays of the older fellows, Jack 
drew around him a circle of small boys, who were al- 
ways glad to be amused with the stories of hunting, fish- 
ing, and frontier adventure that he had 
heard from old pioneers on Wildcat 
Creek. Sometimes he played “ tit - 
tat -toe, three in a row,” with the girls, 
using a slate and pencil in a way- well 
known to all school-children. And 
he also showed them a better kind of 
“ tit-tat-toe,” learned on the Wildcat, diagram of 

, , . , , . . . _ , TIT-TAT-TOE BOARD. 

and which may have been in the first 
place an Indian game, as it is played with grains of Ind- 
ian corn. A piece of board is grooved with a jack-knife 
in the manner shown in the diagram. 




22 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


One player has three red or yellow grains of corn, and 
the other an equal number of white ones. The player who 
won the last game has the “go ” — that is, he first puts down 
a grain of corn at any place where the lines intersect, but 
usually in the middle, as that is the best point. Then the 
other player puts down one, and so on until all are down. 
After this, the players move alternately along any of the 
lines, in any direction, to the next intersection, provided it 
is not already occupied. The one who first succeeds in 
getting his three grains in a row wins the point, and the 
board is cleared for a new start. As there are always 
three vacant points, and as the rows may be formed in 
any direction along any of the lines, the game gives a 
chance for more variety of combinations than one would 
expect from its appearance. 

Jack had also an arithmetical puzzle which he had 
learned from his father, and which many of the readers of 
this story will know, perhaps. 

“Set down any number, without letting me know what 
it is,” said he to Joanna Merwin. 

She set down a number. 

“ Now add twelve and multiply by two.” 

“ Well, that is done,” said Joanna. 

“ Divide by four, subtract half of the number first set 
down, and your answer will be six.” 

“ Oh, but how did you know that I put down sixty- 
four ? ” said Joanna. 

“ I didn’t,” said Jack. 

“ How could you tell the answer, then ? ” 

“ That’s for you to find out.” 

This puzzle excited a great deal of curiosity. To add to 
the wonder of the scholars, Jack gave each time a differ- 
ent number to be added in, and sometimes he varied the 
multiplying and dividing. Harvey Collins, who was of 
a studious turn, puzzled over it a long time, and at last 


WHILING AWAY TIME. 


23 


he found it out ; but he did not tell the secret. He 
contented himself with giving out a number to Jack and 
telling his result. To the rest it was quite miraculous, 
and Riley turned green with jealousy when he found the 
girls and boys refusing to listen to his jokes, but gathering 
about Jack to test his ability to “guess the answer,” as 
they phrased it. Riley said he knew how it was done, and 
he was even foolish enough to try to do it, by watching 
the slate-pencil, or by sheer guessing; but this only 
brought him into ridicule. 

“Try me once,” said the little C. C. G. W. M. de L. Ris- 
dale, and Jack let Columbus set down a figure and carry 
it through the various processes until he told him the re- 
sult. Lummy grew excited, pushed his thin hands up into 
his hair, looked at his slate a minute, and then squeaked 
out : 

“Oh — let me see — yes — no — yes — Oh, I see! Your 
answer is just half the amount added in, because you 
have ” 

But here Jack placed his hand over Columbus’s mouth. 

“You can see through a pine door, Lummy, but you 
mustn’t let out my secret,” he said. 

But Jack had a boy’s heart in him, and he longed for 
some more boy-like amusement. 


Pronounce : Processes (pros'-ses-es or pro'-ces-es). Mir-ac'-u-lous. 

Miraculous, wonderful, like a miracle. Phrased, worded, expressed 
in words. 

Note. — The rule for the puzzle mentioned in this chapter is as follows : 
The person with the slate sets down a number not known to the giver of 
the puzzle. Then the giver of the puzzle directs a certain number of his 
own choosing to be added to this number. Then he says : “ Multiply by 
two. Divide by four.” As the unknown number and the known number 
have now been divided by a number twice as large as the one they were 
multiplied by, it is evident that the result so far is a number equal to the 
half of each of these numbers. The giver of the puzzle has now only to 


24 the ho osier school-boy. 

say : “ Subtract half the number you set down at first,” and the result 
will be half the number added. Thus : 


Unknown number 34 

Add by direction 56 

90 

Multiply by 2 

Divide by 4)180 

45 


Subtract half of unknown number ... 17 

28 which is half the number added. 


CHAPTER VI. 

A BATTLE. 

One morning, when Jack proposed to play a game of 
ball with the boys, Riley and Pewee came up and entered 
the game, and objected. 

“ It isn’t interesting to play with greenhorns,” said Will. 
“ If Jack plays, little Christopher Columbus Andsoforth 
will want to play, too ; and then there’ll be two babies to 
teach. I can’t be always helping babies. Let Jack play 
two-hole cat or Anthony-over with the little fellows.” To 
which answer Pewee assented, of course. 

That day at noon Riley came to Jack, with a most gen- 
tle tone and winning manner, and whiningly begged Jack 
to show” him how to divide 770 by 14. 

“It isn’t interesting to show greenhorns,” said Jack, 
mimicking Riley’s tone on the playground that morning. 
“ If I show you, Pewee Rose will want me to show him ; 
then there’ll be two babies to teach. I can’t be always 
helping babies. Go and play two-hole cat with the First 
Reader boys.” 


A BATTLE. 


25 


That afternoon, Mr. Ball had the satisfaction of using 
his new beech switches on both Riley and Pewee, though 
indeed Pewee did not deserve to be punished for not get- 
ting his lesson. It was Nature’s doing that his head, like 
a goat’s, was made for butting and not for thinking. 

But if he had to take whippings from the master and his 
father, he made it a rule to get satisfaction out of some- 
body else. If Jack had helped him he wouldn’t have 
missed. If he had not missed his lesson badly, Mr. Ball 
would not have whipped him. It would be inconvenient 
to whip Mr. Ball in return, but Jack would be easy to 
manage, and as somebody must be whipped, it fell to 
Jack’s lot to take it. 

King Pewee did not fall upon his victim at the school- 
house door^this would have insured him another beating 
from the master. Nor did he attack Jack while Bob Hol- 
liday was with him. Bob was big and strong — a great fel- 
low of sixteen. But after Jack had passed the gate of 
Bob’s house, and was walking on toward home alone, 
Pewee came out from behind an alley fence, accompanied 
by Ben Berry and Will Riley. 

“ I’m going to settle with you now,” said King Pewee, 
sidling up to Jack like an angry bull-dog. 

It was not a bright prospect for Jack, and he cast about 
him for a chance to escape a brutal encounter with such a 
bully, and yet avoid actually running away. 

“ Well,” said Jack, “if I must fight, I must. But I sup- 
pose you won’t let Riley and Berry help you.” 

“No, I’ll fight fair.” And Pewee threw off his coat, 
while Jack did the same. 

“You’ll quit when I say ‘enough,’ wont you?” said 
Jack. 

“Yes, I’ll fight fair, and hold up when you’ve got 
enough.” 

“ Well, then, for that matter, I’ve got enough now. I’ll 


26 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


take the will for the deed, and just say ‘enough’ before 
you begin,” and he turned to pick up his coat. 

“No, you don’t get off that way,” said Pewee. “You’ve 
got to stand up and see who is the best man, or I’ll kick 
you all the way home.” 

“Didn’t you ever hear about Davy Crockett’s ’coon ? ” 
said Jack. “ When the ’coon saw him taking aim, it said : 
‘ Is that you, Crockett ? Well, don’t fire — I’ll come down 
anyway. I know you’ll hit anything you shoot at.’ Now, 
I’m that ’coon. If it was anybody but you, I’d fight. But 
as it’s you, Pewee, I might just as well come down before 
you begin.” 

Pewee was flattered by this way of putting the question. 
Had he been alone, Jack would have escaped. But Will 
Riley, remembering all he had endured from Jack’s retorts, 
said : 

“Oh, give it to him, Pewee ; he’s always making trou- 
ble.” 

At which Pewee squared himself off, doubled up his 
fists, and came at the slenderer Jack. The latter pre- 
pared to meet him, but, after all, it was hard for Pewee 
to beat so good-humored a fellow as Jack. The king’s 
heart failed him, and suddenly he backed off, saying : 

“If you’ll agree to help Riley and me out with our les- 
sons hereafter, I’ll let you off. If you don’t, I’ll thrash 
you within an inch of your life.” And Pewee stood ready 
to begin. 

Jack wanted to escape the merciless beating that Pewee 
had in store for him. But it was quite impossible foi-hiin 
to submit under a threat. So he answered : 

“If you and Riley will treat me as you ought to, I’ll 
help you when you ask me, as I always have. But even 
if you pound me into jelly I won’t agree to help you, un- 
less you treat me right. I won’t be bullied into helping 
you.” 


A BATTLE, 


27 


“ Give it to him, Pewee,” said Ben Berry ; “ he’s too 
sassy.” 

Pewee was a rather good-natured dog — he had to be set 
on. He now began to strike at Jack. Whether he was to 
be killed or not. Jack did not know, but he was resolved 
not to submit to the bully. Yet he could not do much at 
defence against Pewee’s hard fists. However, Jack was 
active and had long limbs ; he soon saw that he must do 
something more than stand up to be beaten. So, when 
King Pewee, fighting in the irregular Western fashion, and 
hoping to get a decided advantage at once, rushed upon 
Jack and pulled his head forward, Jack stooped lower than 
his enemy expected, and, thrusting his hdad between 
Pewee’s knees, shoved his legs from under him, and by 
using all his strength threw Pewee over his own back, so 
that the king’s nose and eyes fell into the dust of the vil- 
lage street. 

“ I’ll pay you for that,” growled Pewee, as he recov- 
ered himself, now thoroughly infuriated ; and with a single 
blow lie sent Jack flat on his back, and then proceeded to 
pound him. Jack could do nothing now, but shelter his 
eyes from Pewee’s blows. 

Joanna Merwin had seen the beginning of the battle 
from her father’s house, and feeling sure that Jack would 
be killed, she had run swiftly down the garden walk to 
the back gate, through which she slipped into the alley ; 
and then she hurried on, as fast as her feet would carry 
her, to the blacksmith-shop of Pewee Rose’s father. 

“ Oh, please, Mr. Rose, come quick ! Pewee’s just kill- 
ing a boy in the street.” 

“ Vitin’ ag’in,” said Mr. Rose, who was a Pennsylvanian 
from the limestone country, and spoke English w’Hh diffi- 
culty. “ He ees a leetle rufifen, dat poy. I’ll see apout 
him right away a’ ready, may be.” 

And without waiting to put off his leathern apron, he 


28 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


walked briskly in the direction indicated by Joanna. Pewee 
was hammering Jack without pity, when suddenly he was 
caught by the collar and lifted sharply to his feet. 

“Wot you doin’ down dare in de dirt wunst a’ready ? 
Hey?” said Mr. Rose, as he shook his son with the full 
force of his right arm, and cuffed him with his left hand. 
“Didn’t I dells you I’d gill you some day if you didn’t 
gwit vitin’ mit oder poys, a’ready ?” 

“ He commenced it,” whimpered Pewee. 

“ You dells a pig lie a’ready, I beleefs, Peter, and I’ll 
whip you fur lyin’ besides wunst more. Fellers like him” 
pointing to Jack, who was brushing the dust off his clothes, 
“ fellers likfe him don’t gommence on such a poy as you. 
You’re such anoder viter I never seed.” And he shook 
Pewee savagely. 

“I won’t doit no more,” begged Pewee — “’pon my 
word and honor I won’t.” 

“ Oh, you don’t gits off dat away no more, a’ready. 
You know what I’ll giff you when I git you home, you 
leedle ruffen. I shows you how to vite, a’ready.” 

And the king disappeared down the street, begging like 
a spaniel, and vowing that he “wouldn’t do it no more.” 
But he got a severe whipping, I fear ; — it is doubtful if 
such beatings ever do any good. The next morning Jack 
appeared at school with a black eye, and Pewee had some 
scratches, so the master whipped them both for fighting. 


Encounter. This word, which means a sudden and accidental meeting 
of two persons, is also used to signify a combat or battle, and that is its 
sense here. Infuriated, made furious or very angry. (Consider the con- 
nection between this word and the word “fury.”) 

What does the word “ brutal ” mean? What does “ merciless ” mean ? 

When Pewee says, “ I won’t do it no more,” what should he have said ? 

Note. — “A Pennsylvanian from the limestone country” means a Penn- 
sylvanian from the region settled by the German emigrants who came to 
this country more than a hundred years ago. In some of the neighbor- 


HAT- BALL AND BULL-PEN. 


29 


hoods remote from towns the people have continued to speak German, and 
some of them even speak English with difficulty. But in late years the 
public schools and the railways, which carry people easily from one part 
of the country to another, have made the use of “Pennsylvania Dutch,” 
as their speech is called, much less common than formerly. The German 
settlers of Pennsylvania were an honest, industrious race, and their de- 
scendants are an important part of the population of the United States ; 
many of them are men of distinction and influence. 


CHAPTER VII. 

HAT-BALL AND BULL-PEN. 

Pewee did not renew the quarrel with Jack — perhaps 
from fear of the rawhide that hung in the blacksmith’s 
shop, or of the master’s ox-gad, or of Bob Holliday’s fists, 
or perhaps from a hope of conciliating Jack and getting 
occasional help in his lessons. Jack was still excluded 
from the favorite game of “bull-pen.” I am not sure that 
he would have been rejected had he asked for admission, 
but he did not want to risk another refusal. He planned 
a less direct way of getting into the game. Asking his 
mother for a worn-out stocking, and procuring an old 
boot-top, lie ravelled the stocking, winding the yarn into 
a ball of medium hardness. Then he cut from the boot- 
top a square of leather large enough for his purpose. 
This he laid on the kitchen-table, and proceeded to mark 
off and cut it into the shape of an orange-peel that has 
been quartered off the orange, leaving the four quarters 
joined together at the middle. This leather he p uv Ll* 
soak over night. The next morning, bright and early, 
with a big needle and some strong thread he sewed it 
around his yarn-ball, stretching the wet leather to its ut- 
most, so that when it should contract the ball would be 
firm and hard, and the leather well moulded to it. Such 


3 ° 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


a ball is far better for all play in which the player is to be 
hit than those sold in the stores nowadays. I have de- 
scribed the manufacture of the old-fashioned home-made 
ball, because there are some boys, especially in the towns, 
who have lost the art of making yarn balls. 

When Jack had finished his ball he let it dry, while 
he ate his breakfast and did his chores. Then he sallied 
out and found Bob Holliday, and showed him the result 
of his work. Bob squeezed it, felt its weight, bounced it 
against a wall, tossed it high in the air, caught it, and then 
bounced it on the ground. Having thus “ put it through 
its paces,” he pronounced it an excellent ball — “a good 
deal better than Ben Berry’s ball. But what are you go- 
ing to do with it ? ” he asked. “ Play Anthony-over ? The 
little boys can play that.” 

I suppose there are boys in these days who do not know 
what “Anthony-over” is. How, indeed, can anybody 
play Anthony-over in a crowded city ? 

The old one-story village school-houses stood generally 
in an open green. The boys divided into two parties, the 
one going on one side, and the other on the opposite side 
of the school-house. The party that had the ball would 
shout, “ Anthony ! ” The others responded, “ Over ! ” To 
this, answer was made from the first party, “ Over she 
comes ! ” and the ball was immediately thrown over the 
school-house. If any of the second party caught it, they 
rushed, pell-mell, around both ends of the school-house to 
the other side, and that one of them who held the ball 
essayed to hit some one of the opposite party before they 
eo^d-exqhange sides. If a boy was hit by the ball thus 
thrown he was counted as captured to the opposite party, 
and he gave all his efforts to beat his old allies. So the 
game went on, until all the players of one side were capt- 
ured by the others. I don’t know what Anthony means 
in this game, but no doubt the game is hundreds of years 


HAT. BALL AND BULL-PEN. 


3 * 

old, and was played in English villages before the first col- 
ony came to Jamestown. 

“ I’m not going to play Anthony-over,” said Jack. “ I’m 
going to show King Pewee a new trick.” 

“Youcan’t get up a game of bull-pen on your own 
hook, and play the four corners and the ring all bv your- 
self.” 

“ No, I don’t mean that. I’m going to show the boys 
how to play hat-ball — a game they used to play on the 
Wildcat.” 

“ I see your point. You are going to make Pewee ask 
you to let him in,” said Bob, and the two boys set out for 
school together, Jack explaining the game to Bob. They 
found one or two boys already there, and when Jack 
showed his new ball and proposed a new game, they fell 
in with it. 

The boys stood their hats in a row on the grass. The 
one with the ball stood over the row of hats, and swung 
his hand to and fro above them, while the boys stood by 
him, prepared to run as soon as the ball should drop into 
a hat. The boy who held the bail, after one or two false 
motions — now toward this hat, and now toward that one — 
would drop the ball into Somebody’s hat. Somebody 
would rush to his hat, seize the ball, and throw it at one 
of the other boys who were fleeing in all directions. If 
he hit Somebody-Else, Somebody-Else might throw from 
where the ball lay, or from the hats, at the rest, and so on 
until some one missed. The one who missed took up his 
hat and left the play, and the boy who picked up the ball 
proceeded to drop it into a hat, and the game went on 
until all but one were put out. 

Hat-ball is so simple that any number can play at it, and 
Jack’s friends found it so full of boisterous fun that every 
new-comer wished to set down his hat. And thus, by the 
time Pewee and Riley arrived, half the larger boys in the 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


school were in the game, and there were not enough left 
to make a good game of bull-pen. 

At noon the new game drew the attention of the boys 
again, and Riley and Pewee tried in vain to coax them 
away. 

“ Oh, I say, come on, fellows ! ” Riley would say. “ Come 
— let’s play something worth playing.” 

But the boys stayed by the new game and the new ball. 
Neither Riley, nor Pewee, nor Ben Berry liked to ask to 
be let into the game after what had passed. Not one of 
them had spoken to Jack since the battle between him and 
Pewee, and they didn’t care to play with Jack’s ball in a 
game of his starting. 

Once the other boys had broken away from Pewee’s 
domination they were pleased to feel themselves free. 
As for Pewee and his friends, they climbed up on a fence, 
and sat like three crows watching the play of the others. 
After a while they got down in disgust, and went off, not 
knowing just what to do. When once they were out of 
sight Jack winked at Bob, who said : 

“ I say, boys, we can play hat-ball at recess when there 
isn’t time for bull-pen. Let’s have a game of bull-pen 
now, before school takes up.” 

It was done in a minute. Bob Holliday and Tom 
Taylor “chose up sides,” the bases were all ready, and by 
the time Pewee and his aids-de-camp had walked discon- 
solately to the pond and back, the boys were engaged in 
a good game of bull-pen. 

Perhaps I ought to say something about the principles 
of a game so little known over the country at large. I 
have never seen it played anywhere but in a narrow bit of 
country on the Ohio River, and yet there is no merrier 
game played with a ball. 

The ball must not be too hard. There should be four 
or more corners. The space inside is called the pen, and 


HAT- BALL AND BULL-PEN. 


33 


the party winning the last game always has the corners. 
The ball is tossed from one corner to another, and when 
it has gone around once, any boy on a corner may, imme- 
diately after catching the ball thrown to him from any of 
the four corners, throw it at any one in the pen. He 
must throw while “the ball is hot” — that is, instantly on 
catching it. If he fails to hit anybody on the other side, 
he goes out. If he hits, his side leave the corners and run 
as they please, for the boy who has been hit may throw 
from where the ball fell, or from any corner, at any one 
of the side holding the corners. If one of them is hit, he 
has the same privilege ; but now the men in the pen are 
allowed to scatter also. Whoever misses is “ out,” and 
the play is resumed from the corners until all of one side 
is out. When but two are left on the corners the ball is 
smuggled — that is, one hides the ball in his bosom, and 
the other pretends that he has it also. The boys in the 
ring do not know which has it, and the two “ run the 
corners,” throwing from any corner. If but one is left on 
the corners, he is allowed also to run from corner to 
corner. 

It happened that Jack’s side lost on the toss-up for 
corners, and he got into the ring, where his play showed 
better than it would have done on the corners. As Jack 
was the greenhorn and the last chosen on his side, the 
players on the corners expected to make light work of 
him ; but he was an adroit dodger, and he put out three 
of the boys on the corners by his unexpected way of 
evading a ball. Everybody who has ever played this fine 
old game knows that expertness in dodging is worth quite 
as much as skill in throwing. Pewee was a famous hand 
with a ball, Riley could dodge well, Ben Berry had a 
happy knack of dropping flat upon the ground and letting 
a ball pass over him, Bob Holliday could run well in a 
countercharge ; but nothing could be more effective than 
3 


34 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


Jack Dudley’s quiet way of stepping forward or backward, 
bending his lithe body or spreading his legs to let the ball 
pass, according to the course which it took from the 
player’s hand. 

King Pewee and company came back in time to see 
Jack dodge three balls thrown point-blank at him from a 
distance of fifteen feet. It was like witchcraft — he seemed 
to be charmed. Every dodge was greeted with a shout, 
and when once he luckily caught the ball thrown at him, 
and thus put out the thrower, there was no end of admira- 
tion of his playing. It was now evident to all that Jack 
could no longer be excluded from the game, and that, 
next to Pewee himself, he was already the best player on 
the ground. 

At -recess that afternoon, Pewee set his hat down in the 
hat-ball row, and as Jack did not object, Riley and Ben 
Berry did the same. The next day Pewee chose Jack 
first in bull-pen, and the game was well played. 


Pronounce : Aid-de-camp (aid-deh-kong. This does not represent 
exactly the pronunciation, which is French, and cannot be given in letters 
used with their English sounds.) The plural, which is used in the text, 
is aids-de-camp. An aid-de-camp is an officer whose duty it is to carry 
the orders of a general. 

Rawhide, a whip made of untanned leather. Ox-gad, a local word 
for a long switch used in driving oxen. Conciliating, reconciling, win- 
ning the good-will of. Medium, middling. Boisterous, noisy. Dom- 
ination, mastery, lordship. Disconsolately, cheerlessly, sorrowfully. 
Evading, avoiding. Witchcraft, the power by which a witch was sup- 
posed to do impossible things. Charmed, controlled by some enchant- 
ment or magic. Excluded, shut out. Point-blank, direct, at short 
range ; a military term said of a shot fired at an object close at hand. 

“ Put it through its paces ” is a phrase that comes from the practice 
in buying and selling horses of making the horse trot, gallop, etc. — that is, 
show off his paces. 

Note. — In the Middle Ages our English forefathers, many of them, 
spoke French, and it is probable that the word “Anthony,” in the game 


THE DEFENDER. 


35 


of Anthony-over, is only a change from an old way of counting three in 
French before throwing the ball. Un, deux, trois, is one, two, three, in 
the French of to-day. But in old French, as spoken in many places, these 
words were pronounced ainh, duh, tray, which would easily be corrupted 
into An-tho-ny as French ceased to be spoken and the meaning of the old 
count-words was no longer understood by the boys playing the game. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DEFENDER. 

If Jack had not about this time undertaken the defence 
of the little boy in the “ Fourth Reader,” whose name 
was large enough to cover the principal points in the his- 
tory of the New World, he might have had peace, for 
Jack was no longer one of the newest scholars, his cour- 
age was respected by Pevvee, and he kept poor Riley in 
continual fear of his ridicule — making him smart every 
day. But, just when he might have had a little peace and 
happiness, he became the defender of Christopher Colum- 
bus George Washington Marquis de la Fayette Risdale 
— little “ Andsoforth,” as Riley and the other boys had 
nicknamed him. 

The strange, pinched little body of the boy, his ec- 
centric ways, his quickness in learning, and his infantile 
simplicity had all conspired to win the affection of Jack, 
so that he would have protected him even without the 
solicitation of Susan Lanham. But since Susan had been 
Jack’s own first and fast friend, he felt in honor bound to 
run all risks in the care of her strange little cousin. 

I think that Columbus’s childlike ways might have 
protected him even from Riley and his set, if it had not 
been that he was related to Susan Lanham, and under 
her .protection. .it was the only chance for Riley to re- 
venge himself otf Susan. She was more than a match for 


3 6 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


him in wit, and she was not a proper subject for Pewee’s 
fists. So with that heartlessness which belongs to the 
school-boy bully, he resolved to torment the helpless 
fellow in revenge for Susan’s sarcasms. 

One morning, smarting under some recent taunt of 
Susan’s, Riley caught little Columbus almost alone in the 
school-room. Here was a boy who certainly would not 
be likely to strike back again. His bamboo legs, his 
spindling arms, his pale face, his contracted chest, all 
gave the coward a perfect assurance of safety. So, with 
a rude pretence at play, laughing all the time, he caught 
the lad by the throat, and in spite of his weird dignity 
and pleading gentleness, shoved him back against the 
wall behind the master’s empty chair. Holding him here 
a minute in suspense, he began slapping him, first on this 
side of the face and then on that. The pale cheeks 
burned red with pain and fright, but Columbus did not 
cry out, though the constantly increasing sharpness of the 
blows, and the sense of weakness, degradation, and ter- 
ror, stung him severely. Riley thought it funny. Like a 
cat playing with a condemned mouse, the cruel fellow 
actually enjoyed finding one person weak enough to be 
afraid of him. 

Columbus twisted about in a vain endeavor to escape 
from Riley’s clutches, getting only a sharper cuff for his 
pains. Ben Berry, arriving presently, enjoyed the sport, 
w’hile some of the smaller boys and girls, coming in, 
looked on the scene of torture in helpless pity. And 
ever, as more and more of the scholars gathered, Columbus 
felt more and more mortified ; the tears were in his great 
sad eyes, but he made no sound of crying or complaint. 

Jack Dudley came in at last, and marched straight up 
to Riley, who let go his hold and backed off. “ You 
mean, cowardly, pitiful villain !” broke out Jack, advanc- 
ing on him. 


THE DEFENDER. 


37 


“ I didn’t do anything to you,” whined Riley, backing 
into a corner. 

“No, but I mean to do something to you. If there’s an 
incii of man in you, come right on and fight with me. 
You daren’t do it.” 

“ I don’t want any quarrel with you.” 

“No, you quarrel with babies.” 

Here all the boys and girls jeered. 

“You’re too hard on a fellow, Jack,” whined the scared 
Riley, slipping out of the corner and continuing to back 
down the school-room, while Jack kept slowly following 
him. 

“You’re a great deal bigger than I am,” said Jack. 
“Why don’t you try to corner me? Oh, I could just 
beat the breath out of you, you great, big, good-for- 
nothing ” 

Here Riley pulled the west door open, and Jack, at the 
same moment, struck him. Riley half dropped, half fell, 
through the door-way, scared so badly that he went sprawl- 
ing on the ground. 

The boys shouted “coward” and “baby” after him as 
he sneaked off, but Jack went back to comfort Columbus 
and to get control of his temper. For it is not wise, as 
Jack soon reflected, even in a good cause, to lose your 
self-control. 

“It was good of you to interfere,” said Susan, when 
she had come in and learned all about it. 

“ I should have been a brute if I hadn’t,” said Jack, 
pleased none the less with her praise. “ But it doesn’t 
take any courage to back Riley out of a school-house. 
One could get more fight out of a yearling calf. I sup- 
pose I’ve got to take a beating from Pewee, though.” 

“Go and see him about it, before Riley talks to him,” 
suggested Susan. And Jack saw the prudence of this 
course. As he left the school-house at a rapid pace, Ben 


38 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


Berry told Riley, who was skulking behind a fence, that 
Jack was afraid of Pewee. 

“Pewee,” said Jack, when he met him starting to 
school, after having done his “chores,” including the 
milking of his cow, “ Pewee, I want to say something to 
you.” 

Jack’s tone and manner flattered Pewee. One thing 
that keeps a rowdy a rowdy is the thought that better 
people despise him. Pewee felt in his heart that Jack 
had a contempt for him, and this it was that made him 
hate Jack in turn. But now that the latter sought him in 
a friendly way, he felt himself lifted up into a dignity 
hitherto unknown to him. “What is it ?” 

“ You are a kind of king among the boys,” said Jack. 
Pew T ee grew an inch taller. 

“They are all afraid of you. Now, why don’t you 
make us fellows behave ? You ought to protect the little 
boys from fellows that impose on them. Then you’d be a 
king worth the having. All the boys and girls would like 
you.” 

“I s’pose may be that’s so,” said the king. 

“There’s poor little Columbus Risdale ” 

“ I don’t like him,” said Pewee. 

“You mean you don’t like Susan. She is a little sharp 
with her tongue. But you wouldn’t fight with a baby — it 
isn’t like you.” 

“No, siree,” said Pewee. 

“You’d rather take a big boy than a little one. Now, 
you ought to make Riley let Lummy alone.” 

“ I’ll do that,” said Pewee. “ Riley’s about a million 
times bigger than Lum.” 

“I went to the school-house this morning,” continued 
Jack, “ and I found Riley choking and beating him. And 
I thought I’d just speak to you, and see if you can’t make 
him stop it.” 


THE DEFENDER . 


39 


“ I’ll do that,” said Pewee, walking along with great 
dignity. 

When Ben Berry and Riley saw Pewee coming in com- 
pany with Jack, they were amazed and hung their heads, 
afraid to say anything even to each other. Jack and 
Pewee walked straight up to the fence-corner in which 
they stood. 

“I thought I’d see what King Pewee would say about 
your fighting with babies, Riley,” said Jack. 

“ I want you fellows to understand,” said Pewee, “ that 
Pm not going to have that little Lum Risdale hurt. If 
you want to fight, why don’t you fight somebody your own 
size ? I don’t fight babies myself,” and here Pewee drew 
his head up, “and I don’t stand by any boy that does.” 

Poor Riley felt the last support drop from under him. 
Pewee had deserted him, and he was now an orphan, un- 
protected in an unfriendly world ! 

Jack knew that the truce with so vain a fellow as Pewee 
could not last long, but it served p its purpose for the time. 
And when, after school, Susan Lanham took pains to go 
and thank Pewee for standing up for Columbus, Pewee 
felt himself every inch a king, and for the time he was — if 
not a “reformed prize-fighter,” such as one hears of some- 
times, at least an improved boy. The trouble with vain 
people like Pewee is, that they have no stability. They 
bend the way the wind blows, and for the most part the 
wind blows from the wrong quarter. 


Pronounce: Infantile (in'-fan-tile, or in'-fan-til). Bam-boo'. Weird 
(weerd). 

Infantile, resembling or belonging to an infant, baby-like. Taunt, 
censure, ridicule. Bamboo, a reed that grows in the East Indies, and 
which is used for various purposes. Weird (weerd), unearthly, strange. 
Degradation, disgrace. Mortified, deeply ashamed. Skulking, hiding 
from fear or shame. Stability, firmness, strength of resolution. 


40 


THE H00SIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


Why is Columbus spoken of as having bamboo legs ? What does heart- 
lessness mean? Why is a mouse that a cat has caught called a “con- 
demned mouse ? ” What is a prize-fighter ? What do you think of the 
conduct of Jack as described in the lesson ? 


CHAPTER IX. 

PIGEON POT-PIE. 

Happy boys and girls that go to school nowadays ! You 
have to study harder than the generations before you, it 
is true ; you miss the jolly spelling-schools, and the good 
old games that were not half so scientific as base-ball, 
lawn-tennis, or la-crosse, but that had ten times more 
fun and frolic in them ; but all this is made up to you 
by the fact that you escape the tyrannical old master. 
Whatever the faults the teachers of this day may have, 
they do not generally lacerate the backs of their pupils, as 
did some of their forerunners. 

At the time of which I write, thirty years ago, a better 
race of school-masters was crowding out the old ; but many 
of the latter class, with their terrible switches and cruel 
beatings, kept their ground until they died off one by one, 
and relieved the world of their odious ways. 

Mr. Ball wouldn’t die to please anybody. He was a 
bachelor, and had no liking for children, but taught school 
five or six months in winter to avoid having to work on a 
farm in the summer. He had taught in Greenbank every 
winter for a quarter of a century, and having never learned 
to win anybody’s affection, had been obliged to teach those 
who disliked him. This atmosphere of mutual dislike will 
sour the sweetest temper, and Mr. Ball’s temper had not 
been strained honey to begin with. Year by year he grew 
more and more severe — he whipped for poor lessons, he 


PIGEON POT-PIE. 


41 


whipped for speaking in school, he took down his switch 
for not speaking loud enough in class, he whipped for 
coining late to school, he whipped because a scholar made 
a noise with his feet, and he whipped because he himself 
had eaten something unwholesome for his breakfast. The 
brutality of a master produces like qualities in scholars. 
The boys drew caricatures on the blackboard, put living 
cats, or dead ones, into Mr. Ball’s desk, and tried to drive 
him wild by their many devices. 

He would walk up and down the school-room seeking a 
victim, and he had as much pleasure in beating a girl or a 
little boy as in punishing an overgrown fellow. 

And yet I cannot say that Mr. Ball was impartial. 
There were some pupils that,- escaped. Susan Lanham 
was not punished, because her father, Dr. Lanham, was a 
very influential man in the town ; and the faults of Henry 
Weathervane and his sister were always overlooked after 
their father became a school trustee. 

Many efforts had been made to put a new master into 
the school. But Mr. Ball’s brother-in-law was one of the 
principal merchants in the place, and the old man had had 
the school so long that it seemed like robbery to deprive 
him of it. It had come, in some sort, to belong to him. 
People hated to see him moved. He would die some day, 
they said, and nobody could deny that, though it often 
seemed to the boys and girls that he would never die ; he 
was more likely to dry up and blow away. And it was a 
long time to wait for that. 

And yet I think Greenbank might have had to wait for 
something like that if there hadn’t come a great flight of 
pigeons just at this time. For whenever Susan Lanham 
suggested to her father that he should try to get Mr. Ball 
removed and a new teacher appointed, Dr. Lanham smiled 
and said, “he hated to move against the old man; he’d 
been there so long, you know, and he probably wouldn’t 


42 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


live long, anyhow. Something ought to be done, perhaps, 
but he couldn’t meddle with him.” For older people for- 
got the beatings they had endured, and remembered the 
old man only as one of the venerable landmarks of their 
childhood. 

And so, by favor of Henry Weathervane’s father, whose 
children he did not punish, and by favor of other people’s 
neglect and forgetfulness, the Greenbank children might 
have had to face and fear the old ogre down to this day, 
or until he dried up and blew away, if it hadn’t been, as I 
said, that there came a flight of pigeons. 

A flight of pigeons was not uncommon in the Ohio River 
I country. Audubon, the naturalist, saw them in his day, 
and in old colonial times such flights took place in the set- 
tlements on the seaboard, and sometimes the starving 
colonists were able to knock down pigeons with sticks. 
The mathematician is not yet born who can count the 
number of pigeons in one of these skv-darkening flocks, 
which are often many miles in length, and which follow 
one another for a whole day. The birds, for the most part, 
fly at a considerable height from the earth, but when they 
are crossing a wide valley, like that of the Ohio River, 
they drop down to a lower level, and so reach the hills 
quite close to the ground, and within easy gunshot. 

When the pigeon flight comes on Saturday, it is very 
convenient for those boys that have guns. If these pig- 
eons had only come on Saturday, instead of on Monday, Mr. 
Ball might have taught the Greenbank school until to- 
day — that is to say, if he hadn’t died or quite dried up and 
blown off meanwhile. 

For when Riley and Ben Berry saw this flight of pigeons 
begin on Monday morning, they remembered that the 
geography lesson was a hard one, and so they played 
“ hooky,” and, taking their guns with them, hid in the 
bushes at the top of the hill. Then, as the birds struck 


P TEG ON POT- PTE. 


43 


the hill, and beat their way up over the brow of it, the 
boys, lying in ambush, had only to fire into the flock with- 
out taking aim, and the birds would drop all around them. 
The report of the guns made Bob Holliday so hungry 
for pigeon pot-pie, that he, too, ran away from school, at 
recess, and took his place among the pigeon-slayers in the 
pawpaw patch on the hill-top. 

Tuesday morning Mr. Ball came in with darkened brows, 
and three extra switches. Riley, Berry, and Holliday 
were called up as soon as school began. They had pigeon 
pot-pie for dinner, but they also had sore backs for three 
days, and Bob laughingly said that he knew just how a pig- 
eon felt when it was basted. 

The day after the whipping and the pigeon pot-pie, 
when the sun shone warm at noon, the fire was allowed to 
go down in the stove. All were at play in the sunshine, 
excepting Columbus Risdale, who sat solitary, like a dis- 
consolate screech-owl, in one corner of the room. Riley 
and Ben Berry, still smarting from yesterday, entered, and 
without observing Lummy’s presence, proceeded to put 
some gunpowder in the stove, taking pains to surround it 
with cool ashes, so that it should not explode until the 
stirring of the fire, as the chill of the afternoon should 
come on. When they had finished this dangerous transac- 
tion, they discovered the presence of Columbus in his cor- 
ner, looking at them with large-eyed wonder and alarm. 

“ If you ever tell a living soul about that, we’ll kill you,” 
said Ben Berry. 

Riley also threatened the scared little rabbit, and both 
felt safe from detection. 


Pronounce: Scientific (si-en-tif'-ic) . Tyrannical (ti-ran'-ic-al). 
Lacerate (las'-er-ate). O'-di-ous (not ojious). Car'-i-ca-ture (not 
car-i-ca-/<*?r). Do not say car-ic'-a-ture). De-vice'. Ogre (o'gur, or 
rather O'-ger, with the g hard). Mathematician (math'-e-mat-ish'-un). 


44 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


Pawpaw', usually pronounced in this country pop'-aw. Basted, 
(bayst-ed). 

Generations, people considered as parents and children. All the 
people living at one time are called a generation. Scientific, according 
to the rules and principles of science ; but, as here applied, to games, it 
means according to certain precise rules and principles. Tyrannical, un- 
justly severe in government. Lacerate, to tear or break the flesh. 
Forerunners, those who have come before in any calling or situation. 
Odious, hateful. Caricature, a drawing in which the traits of a person 
are so exaggerated as to be ridiculous. Venerable, to be respected on 
account of age. Ogre, a monster in fairy tales, supposed to live on human 
beings. Mathematician, a person skilled in mathematics or the science 
of numbers. Colonial times, the period in American history before the 
American revolution, the time in which the older States of the American 
Union were English colonies. In ambush, concealed and waiting for an 
enemy. Pawpaw, or papaw, here means a small tree which grows in 
some parts of the United States and bears a large, sweet fruit, liked 
especially by children. The inner bark of the tree is tough, and is used 
by boys to make strings, ropes, and whips. Basted, a boy is basted when he 
is beaten with a stick ; but one bastes roasting meat by pouring some kind of 
fat over it while it is cooking. The word is used in a double sense in the 
lesson. Detection, discovery of a fault or of a guilty person. “ To play 
hooky ” is to play truant. 

What is the meaning of the expression, “ Mr. Ball’s temper had not 
been strained honey to begin with?” What is meant by “large-eyed 
wonder ? ” What by “ sky-darkening flocks ? ” 


CHAPTER X. 

EXPLOSIONS. 

An hour after school had resumed its session, Colum- 
bus, who had sat shivering with terror all the time, wrote 
on his slate : 

“ Will Riley and Ben B. put something in the stove. 
Said they would kill me if I told on them.” 

This he passed to Jack, who sat next to him. Jack 
rubbed it out as soon as he had read it, and wrote *. 


EXPLOSIONS. 


45 


“ Don’t tell anybody.” 

Jack could not guess what they had put in. It might 
be coffee-nuts, which would explode harmlessly ; it might 
be something that would give a bad smell in burning, such 
as chicken-feathers. If he had thought that it was gun- 
powder, he would have plucked up courage enough to 
give the master some warning, though he might have got 
only a whipping for his pains. While Jack was debating 
what he should do, the mastercalled the “ Fourth-Reader” 
class. At the close of the lesson he noticed that Colum- 
bus was shivering, though indeed it was more from terror 
than from cold. 

“ Go to the stove and stir up the fire, and get warm,” he 
said, sternly. 

“ I’d — I’d rather not,” said Lum, shaking with fright 
at the idea. 

“Umph !” said Mr. Ball, looking hard at the lad, with 
half a mind to make him go. Then he changed his pur- 
pose and went to the stove himself, raked forward the 
coals, and made up the fire. Just as he was shutting the 
stove-door the explosion came — the ashes flew out all over 
the master, the stove was thrown down from the bricks on 
which its four legs rested, the long pipe fell in many pieces 
on the floor, and the children set up a general howl in all 
parts of the room. 

As soon as Mr. Ball had shaken off the ashes from his 
coat, he said : “ Be quiet — there’s no more danger. Co- 
lumbus Risdale, come here.” 

“ He did not do it,” spoke up Susan Lanham. 

“ Be quiet, Susan. You know all about this,” continued 
the master to poor little Columbus, who was so frightened 
as hardly to be able to stand. After looking at Colum- 
bus a moment, the master took down a great beech switch. 
“ Now, I shall whip you until you tell me who did it. You 
were afraid to go to the stove. You knew there was pow- 


46 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


der there. Who put it there ? That’s the question. An- 
svver, quick, or I shall make you.” 

The little skin-and-bones trembled between two terrors, 
and Jack, seeing his perplexity, got up and stood by him. 

“He didn’t do it, Mr. Ball. I know who did it. If Co- 
lumbus should tell you, he would be beaten for telling. 
The boy who did it is just mean enough to let Lummy get 
the whipping. Please let him off.” 

“ You know, do you ? I shall whip you both. You knew 
there was gunpowder in the fire, and you gave no warn- 
ing. I shall whip you both — the severest whipping you 
ever had, too.” 

And the master put up the switch he had taken down, 
as not effective enough, and proceeded to take another. 

“ If we had known it was gunpowder,” said Jack, begin- 
ning to tremble, “you would have been w T arned. But we 
didn’t. We only knew that something had been put in.” 

“ If you’ll tell all about it, I’ll let you off easier ; if you 
don’t, I shall give you all the whipping I know how to 
give.” And by way of giving impressiveness to his threat 
he took a turn about the room, while there was an awful 
stillness among the terrified scholars. 

I do not know what was in Bob Holliday’s head, but 
about this time he managed to open the western door 
while the master’s back was turned. Bob’s desk was near 
the door. 

Poor little Columbus was ready to die, and Jack was 
afraid that, if the master should beat him as he threatened 
i to do, the child would die outri'ght. Luckily, at the sec- 
ond cruel blow, the master broke his switch and turned 
to get another. Seeing the door open, Jack whispered to 
Columbus : 

“ Run home as fast as you can go.” 

The little fellow needed no second bidding. He tottered 
on his trembling legs to the door, and was out before Mr. 


EXPLOSIONS, 


47 


Ball had detected the motion. When the master saw his 
prey disappearing out of the door, he ran after him, but 
it happened curiously enough, in the excitement, that Bob 
Holliday, who sat behind the door, rose up, as if to look 
out, and stumbled against the door, thus pushing it shut, 
so that by the time Mr. Ball got his stiff legs outside the 
door, the frightened child was under such headway that, 
fearing to have the whole school in rebellion, the teacher 
gave over the pursuit, and came back prepared to wreak 
his vengeance on Jack. 

While Mr. Bali was outside the door, Bob Holliday 
called to Jack, in a loud whisper, that he had better run, 
too, or the old master would “skin him alive.” But Jack 
had been trained to submit to authority, and to run away 
now would lose him his winter’s schooling, on which he 
had set great store. He made up his mind to face the 
punishment as best he could, fleeing only as a last resort 
if the beating should be unendurable. 

“Now,” said the master to Jack, “will you tell me who 
put that gunpowder in the stove? If you don’t, I’ll take 
it out of your skin.” 

Jack could not bear to tell, especially under a threat. 
I think that boys are not wholly right in their notion that 
it is dishonorable to inform on a school-mate, especially 
in the case of so bad an offence as that of which Will and 
Ben were guilty. But, on the other hand, the last thing 
a master ought to seek is to turn boys into habitual spies 
and informers on one another. In the present instance, 
Jack ought, perhaps, to have told, for the offence was 
criminal ; but it is hard for a high-spirited lad to yield to 
a brutal threat. 

Jack caught sight of Susan Lanham telegraphing from 
behind the master, by spelling with her fingers : 

“ Tell or run.” 

But he could not make up his mind to do either, though 


4 8 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


Bob Holliday had again mysteriously opened the western 
door. 

The master summoned all his strength and struck him 
half a dozen blows that made poor Jack writhe. Then he 
walked up and down the room awhile, to give the victim 
time to consider whether he would tell or not. 

“Run,” spelled out Susan on her fingers. 

“ The school-house is on fire !” called out Bob Holliday. 
Some of the coals that had spilled from the capsized stove 
were burning the floor — not dangerously ; but Bob wished 
to make a diversion. He rushed for a pail of water in the 
corner, and all the rest, aching with suppressed excite- 
ment, crowded around the fallen stove, so that it was hard 
for the master to tell whether there was any fire or not. 
Bob whispered to Jack to “ cut sticks,” but Jack only went 
to his seat. 

“ Lay hold, boys, and let’s put up the stove,” said Bob, 
taking the matter quite out of the master’s hands. Of 
course, the stove-pipe would not fit without a great deal 
of trouble. Did ever stove-pipe go together without 
trouble ? Somehow all the joints that Bob joined to- 
gether flew asunder over and over again, though he 
seemed to work most zealously to get the stove set up. 
After half an hour of this confusion the pipe was fixed, 
and the master, having had time, like the stove, to cool off, 
and seeing Jack bent over his book, concluded to let the 
matter drop. But there are some matters that, once taken 
up, are hard to drop. 


Pronounce : Wreak (reek). Au-thor'-i-ty. Writhe (W not 
sounded). Observe the two sounds of th. In writhe it is sounded as it 
is in these, those, there, they, their, them, this, that. The other 
sound is heard in thin, thing, three, truth, both. Which one of these 
sounds do you give to th in cloth ? Which in clothe ? Which in seethe ? 
Which in teeth ? Zealously (zel'-us-ly). 


JACK AND HIS MOTHER. 


49 


Coffee-nut, a nut which grows on a large tree in some parts of the 
United States. It is roasted and eaten by children. Criminal, having 
* the character of a crime. Diversion, a turning of the attention to some- 
thing else. (What has this to do with diversion in the sense of amuse- 
ment ?) Zealously, with zeal, earnestly. “ Cut sticks,” a slang expres- 
sion, meaning to run away. What does the word prey mean ? Why is 
Columbus Risdale spoken of as the master’s “ prey ?” 


CHAPTER XI. 

JACK AND HIS MOTHER. 

Jack went home that night very sore on his back and 
in his feelings. He felt humiliated to be beaten like a 
dog, and even a dog feels degraded in being beaten. He 
told his mother about it — the tall, dignified, sweet-faced 
mother, patient in trouble and full of a goodness that did not 
talk much about goodness. She always took it for granted 
that her boy would not do anything mean, and thus made 
a healthy atmosphere for a brave boy to grow in. Jack told 
her of his whipping, with some heat, while he sat at supper. 
She did not say much then, but after Jack’s evening chores 
were all finished, she sat down by the candle where he 
was trying to get out some sums, and questioned him care- 
fully. 

“Why didn’t you tell who did it ?” she asked. 

“ Because it makes a boy mean to tell, and all the boys 
would have thought me a sneak.” 

“ It is a little hard to face a general opinion like that,” 
she said. 

“ But,” said Jack, “if I had told, the master would have 
whipped Columbus all the same, and the boys would prob- 
ably have pounded him too. I ought to have told before- 
hand,” said Jack, after a pause. “ But I thought it was 
only some coffee-nuts that they had put in. The mean 
4 


5 o THE HO OSIER SCHOQL-BOY. 

fellows, to let Columbus take a whipping for them ! But 
the way Mr. Ball beats us is enougli to make a boy mean 
and cowardly." 

After a long silence, the mother said : “ I think we shall 
have t;o give it up, Jack." 

“What, mother ?" 

“ The schooling for this winter. I don’t want you to 
go where boys are beaten in that way. In the morning go 
and get your books and see what you can do at home." 

Then, after a long pause, in which neither liked to speak, 
Mrs. Dudley said : 

“ I want you to be an educated man. You learn quickly ; 
you have a taste for books, and you will be happier if you 
get knowledge. If I could collect the money that Gray 
owes your father’s estate, or even a part of it, I should be 
able to keep you in school one winter after this. But 
there seems to be no hope for that." 

“But Gray is a rich man, isn’t he ? " * 

“Yes, he has a good deal of property, but not in his own 
name. He persuaded your father, who was a kind-hearted 
and easy-natured man, to release a mortgage, promising 
•to give him some other security the next week. But, 
meantime, he put his property in such a shape as to cheat 
all his creditors. “ I don’t think we shall ever get any- 
thing." 

“ I am going to be an educated man, anyhow." 

“ But you will have to go to work at something next 
fall," said the mother. 

“ That will make it harder, but I mean to study a little 
every day. I wish I could get a chance to spend next 
winter in school." 

“ We’ll see what can be done." 

And long after Jack went to bed that night the mother 
sat still by the candle with her sewing, trying to think what 
she could do to help her boy to get on with his studies. 


COLUMBUS AND HIS FRIENDS. 


5i 


Jack woke up after eleven o’clock, and saw her light 
still burning in the sitting-room. 

“I say, mother,” he called out, “don’t you sit there 
worrying about me. We shall come through this all 
right.” 

Some of Jack’s hopefulness got. into the mother’s heart, 
and she took her light and went to bed. 

Weary, and sore, and disappointed, Jack did not eas- 
lly get to sleep himself after his cheerful speech to his 
mother. He lay awake long, making boy’s plans for his 
future. He would go and collect money by some hook or 
crook from the rascally Gray ; he would make a great in- 
vention ; he would discover a gold mine ; he would find 
some rich cousin who would send him through college ; 
he would — , but just then he grew more wakeful and 
realized that all his plans had no foundation in probabil- 
ity. / 

Pronounce : Hu-mil'-i-a-ted. At'-mos-phere. Mortgage (mor'-gej 
— the g hard). Educated (ed'-yu-ca-ted, not ed-yu-ca'-ted nor eddicated). 

Humiliated, humbled, mortified. Degraded, lowered, put down, dis- 
graced. Atmosphere, the air. But here it means influences which ar^ 
healthful for the mind as fresh air is for the body. Mortgage, a paper 
conveying property to secure the payment of a debt. When the debt is 
paid the mortgage is cancelled. If the debt is not paid the property may 
be sold to pay it. 


CHAPTER XII. 

COLUMBUS AND HIS FRIENDS. 

When he waked up in the morning, Jack remembered 
that he had not seen Columbus Risdale go past the door 
after his cow the evening before, and he was afraid that 
he might be ill. Why had he not thought to go down 
and drive up the cow himself ? It was yet early, and he 


5 2 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


arose and went down to the little rusty, brown, unpainted 
house in which the Risdales, who were poor people, had 
their home. Just as he pushed open the gate Bob •Holli- 
day came out of the door, looking tired and sleepy. 

“ Hello, Bob,” said Jack. “ How’s Columbus ? Is he 
sick?” 

“ Awful sick,” said Bob. “ Clean out of his head all 
night.” 

“ Have you been here all night ? ” 

“ Yes, I heerd he was sick last night, and I come over 
and sot up with him.” 

“You good, big-hearted Bob ! ” said Jack. “ You’re the 
befst fellow in the world, I believe.” 

“What a quare feller you air to talk, Jack,” said Bob, 
choking up. “ Air you goin’ to school to-day ? ” 

“No. Mother’d rather have me not go any more.” 

“ I’m not going any more. I hate old Ball. Neither’s 
Susan Lanham going. She’s in there,” and Bob made a 
motion toward the house with his thumb, and passed out 
of the gate, while Jack knocked at the door. He was ad- 
mitted by Susan. 

“ Oh, Jack ! I’m so glad to see you,” she whispered. 
“ Columbus has asked for you a good many times during 
the night. You’ve stood by him splendidly.” 

Jack blushed, but asked how Lummy was now. 

“ Out of his head most of the time. Bob Holliday 
stayed with him all night. What a good fellow Bob 
Holliday is ! ” 

“I almost hugged him, just now,” said Jack, and Susan 
could not help smiling at this frank confession. 

Jack passed into the next room as stealthily as possible, 
that he might not disturb his friend, and paused by the 
door. Mrs. Risdale sat by the bedside of Columbus, who 
was sleeping uneasily, his curious big head and long thin 
hair making a strange picture against the pillow. His 


COLUMBUS AND HIS FRIENDS. 


53 


face looked more meagre and his eyes more sunken than 
ever before, but there was a feverish flush on his wan 
cheeks, and the slender hands moved uneasily on the out- 
side of the blue coverlet, the puny arms were bare to the 
elbows. 

Mrs. Risdale beckoned Jack to come forward, and he 
came and stood at the bed-foot. Then Columbus opened 
his large eyes and fixed them on Jack for a few seconds. 

“ Come, Jack, dear old fellow,” he whispered. 

Jack came and bent over him with tearful eyes, and the 
poor little reed-like arms were twined about his neck. 

“Jack,” he sobbed, “ the master’s right over there in the 
corner all the time, straightening out his long switches. 
He says he’s going to whip me again. But you won’t let 
him, will you, Jack, you good old fellow ? ” 

“ No, he shan’t touch you.” 

“ Let’s run away, Jack,” he said, presently. And so the 
poor little fellow went on, his great disordered brain pro- 
ducing feverish images of terror from which he continu- 
ally besought “ dear good old Jack ” to deliver him. 

When at last he dropped again into a troubled sleep 
Jack slipped away and drove up the Risdale cow, and 
then went back to his breakfast. He was a boy whose 
anger kindled slowly ; but the more he thought about it, 
the more angry he became at the master who had given 
Columbus such a fright as to throw him into a brain fever, 
and at the “mean, sneaking, contemptible villains,” as he 
hotly called them, who wouldn’t come forward and con- 
fess their trick, rather than to have the poor little lad 
punished. 

“ I suppose we ought to make some allowances,” his 
mother said, quietly. 

“That’s what you always say, mother. You’re always 
making allowances.” 

After breakfast and chores Jack thought to go again 


54 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


to see his little friend. On issuing from the gate, he saw 
Will Riley and Ben Berry waiting for him at the corner. 
Whether they meant to attack him or not he could not 
tell, but he felt too angry to care. 

“ I say, Jack,” said Riley, “ how did you know who put 
the powder in the stove ? Did Columbus tell you ?” 

“Mind your own business,” said Jack, in a tone not so 
polite as it might be. “The less you say about gun- 
powder, hereafter, the better for you both. Why didn’t 
you walk up and tell, and save that little fellow a beat- 
ing?” 

“Look here, Jack,” said Berry, “don’t you tell what 
you know about it. There’s going to be a row. They 
say that Doctor Lanham’s taken Susan, and all the other 
children, out of school, because the master thrashed 
Lummy, and they say Bob Holliday’s quit, and that 
you’re going to quit, and Doctor Lanham’s gone to work 
this morning to get the master put out at the end of the 
term. Mr. Ball didn’t know that Columbus was kin to 
the Lanhams, or he’d have let him alone, like he does the 
Lanhams and the Weathervanes. There is going to be a 
big row, and everybody’ll want to know who put the pow- 
der in the stove. We want you to be quiet about it.” 

“ You do ? ” said Jack, with a sneer. “ You do ? ” 

“ Yes, we do,” said Riley, coaxingly. 

“You do ? You come to me and ask me to keep it se- 
cret, after letting me and that poor little baby take your 
whipping ! You want me to hide what you did, when 
that poor little Columbus lies over there sick abed and 
like to die, all because you sneaking scoundrels let him be 
whipped for what you did ! ” 

“ Is he sick ? ” said Riley, in terror. 

“Going to die, I expect,” said Jack, bitterly. 

“Well,” said Ben Berry, “you be careful what vou say 
about us, or we’ll get Pewee to get even with you.” 


COLUMBUS AND HIS FRIENDS. 


55 

“ Ob, that’s your game ! You think you. can scare me, 
do you ?” 

Jack grew more and more angry. Seeing a group of 
school-boys on the other side of the street, he called them 
over. 

“ Look here, boys,” said Jack, “ I took a whipping yes- 
terday to keep from telling on these fellows, and now they 
have the face to ask me not to tell that they put the 
powder in the stove, and they promise me a beating from 
Pewee if I do. These are the two boys that let a poor 
sickly baby take the whipping they ought to have had. 
They have just as good as killed him, I suppose, and now 
they come sneaking around here and trying to scare me 
in keeping still about it. I didn’t back down from the 
master, and I won’t from Pewee. Oh, no ! I won’t tell 
anybody. But if any of you boys should happen to guess 
that Will Riley and Ben Berry were the cowards who did 
that mean trick, I am not going to say they weren’t. It 
wouldn’t be of any use to deny it. There are only two 
boys in school mean enough to play such a contemptible 
trick as that.” 

Riley and Berry stood sheepishly silent, but just here 
Pewee came in sight, and seeing the squad of boys gath- 
ered around Jack, strode over quickly and pushed his 
sturdy form into the midst. 

“Pewee,” said Riley, “I think you ought to pound 
Jack. He says you can’t back him down.” 

“ I didn’t,” said Jack. “ I said you couldn’t scare me 
out of telling who tried to blow up the school-house stove, 
and let other boys take the whipping, by promising me a 
drubbing from Pewee Rose. If Pewee wants to put him- 
self in as mean a crowd as yours, and be your puppy dog 
to fight for you, let him come on. He’s a fool if he does, 
that’s all I have to say. The whole town will want to ship 
you two fellows off before night, and Pewee isn’t going to 


56 THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 

fight your battles. What do you think, Pewee, of fellows 
that put powder in a stove where they might blow up a 
lot of little children ? What do you think of two fellows 
that want me to keep quiet after they let little Lum Ris- 
dale take a whipping for them, and that talk about setting 
you on me if I tell ? ” 

Thus brought face to face with both parties, King 
Pewee only looked foolish and said nothing. 

Jack had worked himself into such a passion that he 
could not go to Risdale’s, but returned to his own home, 
declaring that he was going to tell everybody in town. 
But when he entered the house and looked into the quiet, 
self-controlled face of his mother, he began to feel cooler. 

“Let us remember that some allowances are to be made 
for such boys,” was all that she said. 

“ That’s what you always say, mother,” said Jack, impa- 
tiently. “ I believe you’d make allowances for the Old 
Boy himself.” 

“That would depend on his bringing up,” smiled Mrs. 
Dudley. “Some people have bad streaks naturally, and 
some have been cowed and brutalized by ill-treatment, 
and some have been spoiled by indulgence.” 

Jack felt more calm after a while. He went back to the 
bedside of Columbus, but he couldn’t bring himself to 
make allowances. 


Pronounce : Wan (wahn). Coverlet (cuv'-er-let, not cuverlid 
nor cuverled, as mispronounced in some places). Besought (be-saut'). 
Stealthily (stel-thi-ly). Calm (cahm). When Bob Holliday said, “Air 
you going to school?” how should he have pronounced the first word ? 
Say quickly, but distinctly, “Sheepishly silent.” 

Stealthily, in a secret or concealed way. Wan, languid, pale, sickly 
in appearance. Puny, small and feeble. Disordered, put out of order, 
deranged. Cowed., overawed, depressed in courage. 

The word “row,” when it means a disturbance, is pronounced so as to 
rhyme with “how.” In what other way may “row ” be pronounced, and 


GREENBANK WAKES UP. 


57 


what meanings has it when pronounced so as to rhyme with snow ? Why 
are Columbus’s arms said to have been “ reed-like ?” What difference do 
you make in reading the two questions, “You do ? ” and “ You do?” 
What is the difference of sense between the two ? What connection has 
the word sheepishly with a sheep ? 

How many errors are there in Bob’s words, “ I heerd he was sick, and 
I come over and sot up with him ? ” Say the same thing correctly. Is 
“ quare ” a correct word ? When Jack says, “like to die” what should 
he say ? 


CHAPTER XIII. 

GREENBANK WAKES UP. 

If the pigeons had not crossed the valley on Monday, 
nobody would have played truant, and if nobody had 
played truant on Monday, there would not have been oc- 
casion to whip three boys on Tuesday morning, and if 
Ben Berry and Riley had escaped a beating on Tuesdav 
morning, they would not have thought of putting gun- 
powder into the stove on Wednesday at noon, and if they 
had omitted that bad joke, Columbus would not have got 
into trouble and run away from school, and if he had 
escaped the fright and the flight, he might not have had 
the fever, and the town would not have been waked up, 
and other things would not have happened. 

So then, you see, this world of ours is just like the 
House that Jack Built : one thing is tied to another and 
another to that, and that to this, and this to something, 
and something to something else, and so on to the very 
end of all things. 

So it was that the village was thrown into a great ex- 
citement as the result of a flock of innocent pigeons go- 
ing over the heads of some lazy boys. In the first place, 
Susan Lanham talked about things. She talked to her 
aunts, and she talked to her uncles, and, above all, she 


58 


THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


talked to her father. Now Susan was the brightest girl 
in the town, and she had a tongue, as all the world knew, 
and when she set out to tell people what a brute the old 
master was, how he had beaten two innocent boys, how 
bravely Jack had carried himself, how frightened little 
Columbus was, and how sick it had made him, and how 
mean the boys were to put the powder there, and then 
to let the others take the whipping — I say, when Susan 
set out to tell all these things in her eloquent way, to 
everybody she knew, you might expect a waking up in 
the sleepy old town. Some of the people took Susan’s 
side and removed their children from the school, lest they, 
too, should get a whipping and run home and have brain 
fever. But many stood up for the old master, mostly be- 
cause they were people of the sort that never can bear to 
see anything changed. “The boys ought to have told 
who put the powder in the stove,” they said. “ It served 
them right.” 

“ How could the master know that Jack and Columbus 
did not do it themselves ?” said others. “May be they 
did ! ” 

“Don’t tell me! ’’cried old Mrs. Horne. “ Don’t tell 
me ! Boys can’t be managed without whipping, and 
plenty of it. ‘ Bring up a child and away he goes,’ as the 
Bible says. When you hire a master, you want a master , 
says I.” 

“What a tongue that Sue Lanham has got !” said Mr. 
Higbie, Mr. Ball’s brother-in-law. 

The excitement spread over the whole village. Doctor 
Lanham talked about it, and the ministers, and the law- 
yers, and the loafers in the stores, and the people who 
came to the post-office for their letters. Of course it 
broke out furiously in the “ Maternal Association,” a 
meeting of mothers held at the house of one of the min- 
isters. 


GREENBANK WAKES UP . 


59 


“Mr. Ball can do every sum in the arithmetic,” urged 
Mrs. Weathervane. 

“ He’s a master hand at figures, they do say,” said 
Mother Brovvnson. 

“Yes,” said Mrs. Dudley, “I don’t doubt it. Jack’s 
back is covered with figures of Mr. Ball’s making. For 
my part, I should rather have a master that did his figur- 
ing on a slate.’* 

Susan Lanham got hold of this retort, and took pains 
that it should be known all over the village. 

When Greenbank once gets waked up on any question, 
it never goes to sleep until that particular question is 
settled. But it doesn’t wake up more than once or twice 
in twenty years. Most of the time it is only talking in its 
sleep. Now that Greenbank had its eyes open for a little 
time, it was surprised to see that while the cities along the 
river had all adopted graded schools — degraded schools, 
as they were called by the people opposed to them — and 
while even the little villages in the hill country had 
younger and more enlightened teachers, the county-town 
of Greenbank had made no advance. It employed yet, 
under the rule of President Fillmore, the same hard old 
stick of a master that had beaten the boys in the log 
school-house in the days of John Quincy Adams and 
Andrew Jackson. But, now it was awake, Greenbank 
kept its eyes open on the school question. The boys 
wrote on the fences, in chalk : 

DOWN WITH OLD BAWL! 

and thought the bad spelling of the name a good joke, 
while men and women began to talk about getting a new 
master. 

Will Riley and Ben Berry had the hardest time. For 
the most part they stayed at home during the excitement, 


6o 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


only slinking out in the evening. The boys nicknamed 
them “ Gunpowder cowards,” and wrote the words on the 
fences. Even the loafers about the street asked them 
whether Old Bail had given them that whipping yet, and 
how they liked “powder and Ball.” 


Pronounce : Figure (fig'-ure, not figger). Figuring (not figgering). 

Maternal, having to do with mothers or motherhood (from the Latin 
word mater , a mother). Retort, a sharp or witty reply. Graded schools, 
schools which are separated into departments according to the advance- 
ment of the pupils. Enlightened, having the mind informed with knowl- 
edge and guided by wisdom. Slinking, sneaking, creeping about in a 
mean way. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

PROFESSOR SUSAN. 

Mr. Ball did not let go easily. He had been engaged 
for the term, and he declared that he would go on to the 
end of the term, if there should be nothing but empty 
benches. In truth, he and his partisans hoped that the 
storm would blow over and the old man be allowed to 
go on teaching and thrashing as heretofore. He had a 
great advantage in that he had been trained in all the 
common branches better than most masters, and was re^ 
garded as a miracle of skill in arithmetical calculations. 
He even knew how to survey land. 

, Jack was much disappointed to miss his winter’s school- 
ing, and there was no probability that he would' be able to 
attend school again. He went on as best he could at 
home, but he stuck fast on some difficult problems in the 
middle of the arithmetic. Columbus had by this time be- 
gun to recover his slender health, and he was even able to 
walk over to Jack’s house occasionally. Finding Jack in 
despair over some of his “sums,” he said : 






























* ■ 




> 







































































































































- 



























< < 


) ) 


'• COUSIN SUKEY,” SAID LITTLE COLUMBUS, 


I WANT TO ASK A FAVOR OF YOU 





PROFESSOR SUSAN. \ 


61 


“Why don’t you ask Susan Lanham to show you? I 
believe she would ; and she has been clean through the 
arithmetic, and she is ’most as good as the master himself.” 

“I don’t like to,” said Jack. “She wouldn’t want to 
take the trouble.” 

But the next morning Christopher Columbus managed 
to creep over to the Lanhams : 

“Cousin Sukey,” he said, coaxingly, “I wish you’d do 
something for me. I want to ask a favor of you.” 

“What is it, Columbus?” said Sue. “Anything you 
ask shall be given, to the half of my kingdom ! ” and she 
struck an attitude, as Isabella of Castile, addressing the 
great Columbus, with the dust-brush for a sceptre, and the 
towel, which she had pinned about her head, for a crown. 

“You are so funny,” he said, with a faint smile. “But 
I wish you’d be sober a minute.” 

“Haven’t had but one cup of coffee this morning. But 
what do you want ?” 

“Jack ” 

“Oh, yes, it’s always Jack with you. But that’s right — 
Jack deserves it.” 

“Jack can’t do his sums, and he won’t ask you to help 
him.” 

“And so he got you to ask ?” 

“ No, he didn’t. He wouldn’t let me, if he knew. He^ 
thinks a young lady like you wouldn’t want to take the 
trouble to help him.” 

“ Do you tell that stupid Jack, that if he doesn’t want to 
offend me so that I’ll never, never forgive him, he is to 
bring his slate and pencil over here after supper this even- 
ing. And you’ll come, too, with your geography. Yours 
truly, Susan Lanham, Professor of Mathematics and Nat- 
ural Science in the Greenbank Independent and Miscel- 
laneous Academy. Do you hear ?” 

“All right.” And Columbus, smiling faintly, went off 


62 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


to tell Jack the good news. That evening Susan had, be- 
sides her own brother and two sisters, two pupils who 
learned more arithmetic than they would have gotten in 
the same time from Mr. Ball, though she did keep them 
laughing at her drollery. The next evening little Joanna 
Merwin joined the party, and Professor Susan felt quite 
proud of her “academy,” as she called it. 

Bob Holliday caught the infection, and went to studying 
at home. As he was not so far advanced as Jack, he con- 
tented himself with asking Jack’s help when he was in 
trouble. At length he had a difficulty that Jack could 
not solve. 

“ Why don’t you take that to the professor? ” asked Jack. 
“ I’ll ask her to show you.” 

“ I dursn’t,” said Bob, with a frightened look. 

“Nonsense !” said Jack. 

That evening, when the lessons were ended, Jack said : 

“ Professor Susan, there was a story in the old ‘ First 
Reader* we had in the first school that I went to, about a 
dog who had a lame foot. A doctor cured his foot, and 
some time after, the patient brought another lame dog to 
the doctor, and showed by signs that he wanted this other 
dog cured, too.” 

“ That’s rather a good dog-story,” said Susan. “But 
what made you think of it ? ” 

“Because Pm that first dog.” 

“ You are ?” 

“Yes. You’ve helped me, but there’s Bob Holliday. 
Pve been helping him, but he’s got to a place where I 
don’t quite understand the thing myself. Now Bob 
wouldn’t dare ask you to help him ” 

“ Bring him along. How the Greenbank Academy 
grows ! ” laughed Susan, turning to her father. 

Bob was afraid of Susan at first — his large fingers trem- 
bled so much that he had trouble to use his slate-pencil. 


PROFESSOR SUSAiY. 63 

But by the third evening his shyness had worn off, so that 
he got on well. 

One evening, after a week of attendance, he was miss- 
ing. The next morning he came to Jack’s house with his 
face scratched and his eye bruised. 

“What’s the matter?” asked Jack. 

“Well, you see, yesterday I was at the school-house at 
noon, and Pewee, egged on by Riley, said something he 
oughtn’t to, about Susan, and I couldn’t stand there and 
hear that girl made fun of, and so I up and downed him, 
and made him take it back. I can’t go till my face looks 
better, you know, for I wouldn’t want her to know any- 
thing about it.” 

But the professor heard all about it from Joanna, who 
had it from one of the school-boys. Susan sent Colum- 
bus to tell Bob that she knew all about it, and that he 
must come back to school. 

“ So you’ve been fighting, have you ? ” she said, severely, 
when Bob appeared. The poor fellow was glad she took 
that tone — if she had thanked him he wouldn’t have been 
able to reply. 

“Yes.” 

“Well, don’t you do it anymore. It’s very wrong to 
fight. It makes boys brutal. A girl who knows enough 
to teach the Greenbank Academy can take care of herself, 
and she doesn’t want her scholars to fight.” 

“All right,” said Bob. “ But,” he muttered, “ I’ll thrash 
him all the same, and more than ever, if he ever says any- 
thing like that again.” 


Pronounce : Partisan (par'-ti-7.an). Castile (cas-teel'). Note : Cas- 
tile is now a part of Spain. Sceptre (sep'-ter). Drollery (droal'-er-y). 
Cal-cu-la'-tions (the u long, like you , not as though spelled calkela- 
tions). Say quickly, but carefully, “arithmetical calculations.” What 
are arithmetical calculations ? 


6 4 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


Partisans, those who side with any faction or party. Sceptre, a kind 
of staff borne by kings or queens on solemn occasions as signs of royal 
authority. Drollery, amusing action or speech. Infection, prevailing 
disease ; here used for a prevailing interest in study. 

Bob says “dursn’t;” what would be the correct phrase? What does 
“ downed” mean ? 


CHAPTER XV. 

CROWING AFTER VICTORY. 

Greenbank was awake, and the old master had to go. 
Mr. Weathervane stood up for him as long as he thought 
that the excitement was temporary. But when he found 
that Greenbank really was awake, and not just talking 
in its sleep, as it did for the most part, he changed sides 
— not all at once, but by degrees. At first he softened 
down a little, “ hemmed and hawed,” as folks say. He 
said he did not know but that Mr. Ball had been hasty, 
but he meant well. The next day he took another step, 
and said that the old master meant well, but he was often 
too hasty in his temper. The next week he let him- 
self down another peg in saying that “ maybe ” the old 
man meant well, but he was altogether too hot in his tem- 
per for a school-master. A little while later, he found 
out that Mr. Ball’s way of teaching was quite out of date. 
Before a month had elapsed, he was sure that the old cur- 
mudgeon ought to be put out, and thus at last Mr. Weath- 
ervane found himself where he liked to be, in the popular 
party. 

And so the old master came to his last day in the brick 
school-house. Whatever feelings he may have had in 
leaving behind him the scenes of his twenty-five years of 
labor, he said nothing. He only compressed his lips a 
little more tightly, scowled as severely as ever, removed 
his books and pens from his desk, gave a last look at his 


CROWING AFTER VICTORY. 


65 


long beech switches on the wall, turned the key in the 
door of the school-house, carried it to Mr. Weathervane, 
received his pay, and walked slowly home to the house of 
his brother-in-law, Mr. Higbie. 

The boys had resolved to have a demonstration. All 
their pent-up wrath against the master now found vent, 
since there was no longer any danger that the old man 
would have a chance to retaliate. They would serenade 
him. Bob Holliday was full of it. Harry Weathervane 
was very active. He was going to pound on his mother's 
bread-pan. Every sort of instrument for making a noise 
was brought into requisition. Dinner-bells, tin -pails, 
conch-shell dinner-horns, tin-horns, and even the village 
bass-drum, were to be used. 

Would Jack go ? Bob came over to inquire. All the 
boys were going to celebrate the downfall of a harsh mas- 
ter. He deserved it for beating Columbus. So Jack re- 
solved to go. 

But after the boys had departed, Jack began to doubt 
whether he ought to go or not. It did not seem quite 
right ; yet his feelings had become so enlisted in the con- 
flict for the old man’s removal that he had grown to be 
a bitter partisan, and the recollection of all he had suf- 
fered, and of all Columbus had endured during his sick- 
ness, reconciled Jack to the appearance of crowing over a 
fallen foe, which this burlesque serenade would have. 
Nevertheless, his conscience was not clear on the point, 
and he concluded to submit the matter to his mother, when 
she should come home to supper. 

Unfortunately for Jack, his mother stayed away to tea, 
sending Jack word that he would have to get his own sup- 
per, and that she would come home early in the evening. 
Jack ate his bowl ofrbread and milk in solitude, trying to 
make himself believe that his mother would approve of 
his taking part in the “ shiveree ” of the old master. But 
5 


66 


THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


when he had finished his supper, he concluded that if his 
mother did not come home in time for him to consult her, 
he would remain at home. He drew up by the light and 
tried to study, but he longed to be out with the boys. 
After a while Bob Holliday and Harry Weathervane came 
to the door and importuned Jack to come with them. It 
was lonesome at home : it would be good fun to celebrate 
the downfall of the old master’s cruel rule, so, taking 
down an old dinner-bell, Jack went off to join the rest. 
He was a little disgusted when he found Riley, Pewee, 
and Ben Berry in the company, but once in the crowd, 
there was little chance to back out with credit. The boys 
crept through the back alleys until they came in front of 
Mr. Higbie’s house, at half-past eight o’clock. There was 
but one light visible, and that was in Mr. Ball’s room. Jack 
dropped behind, a little faint of heart about the expedi- 
tion. He felt sure in himself that his mother would shake 
her head if she knew of it. At length, at a signal from 
Bob, the tin-pans, big and little, the skillet-lids grinding 
together, the horns, both conch-shell and tin, and the big 
bass-drum, set up a hideous clattering, banging, booming, 
roaring, and racketing. Jack rang his dinner-bell rather 
faintly, and stood back behind all the rest. 

“ Jack’s afraid,” said Pewee. “ Why don’t you come up 
to the front, like a man.” 

Jack could not stand a taunt like this, but came forward 
into the cluster of half-frightened peace-breakers. Just 
then the door of Mr. Higbie’s house was opened, and 
some one came out. 

“ It’s Mr. Higbie,” said Ben Berry. “He’s going to 
shoot.” 

“ It’s Bugbee, the watchman, going to arrest us,” said 
Pewee. 

“ It’s Mr. Ball himself,” said Riley, “ and he’ll whip us 
all.” And he fled, followed pell-mell by the whole crowd, 


CROWING AFTER VICTORY. 


67 


excepting Jack, who had a constitutional aversion from 
running away. He only slunk up close to the fence and 
so stood still. 

“ Hello ! Who are you ? ” The voice was not that of 
Mr. Higbie, nor that of the old master, nor of the watch- 
man, Bugbee. With some difficulty Jack recognized the 
figure of Doctor Lanham. “ Oh, it’s Jack Dudley, is it ? ” 
said the doctor, after examining him in the feeble moon- 
light. 

“Yes,” said Jack, sheepishly. 

“You’re the one that got that whipping from the old 
master. I don’t wonder you came out to-night.” 

“ I do,” said Jack, “ and I would rather now that I had 
taken another such whipping than to find myself here.” 

“Well, well,” said the doctor, “boys will be boys.” 

“And fools will be fools, I suppose,” said Jack. 

“ Mr. Ball is very ill,” continued the doctor. “ Find the 
others and tell them they mustn’t come here again to- 
night, or they’ll kill him. I wouldn’t have had this happen 
for anything. The old man’s just broken down by the 
strain he has been under. He has deserved it all, but I 
think you might let him have a little peace now.” 

“ So do I,” said Jack, more ashamed of himself than 
ever. 

The doctor went back into the house, and Jack Dudley 
and his dinner-bell started off down the street in search of 
Harry Weathervane and his tin-pan, and Bob Holliday 
and his skillet-lids, and Ben Berry and the bass-drum. 

“Hello, lack !” called out Bob from an alley. “You 
stood your ground the best of all, didn’t you ?” 

“ I wish I’d stood my ground in the first place against 
you and Harry, and stayed at home.” 

“ Why, what’s the matter ? Who was it ? ” 

By this time the other boys were creeping out of their 
hiding-places and gathering about Jack. 


68 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


“Well, it was the doctor,” said Jack. “ Mr. Ball’s very 
sick and we’ve ’most killed him ; that’s all. We’re a pack 
of cowards to go tooting at a poor old man when he’s 
already down, and we ought to be kicked, every one of us. 
That’s the way I feel about it,” and Jack set out for home, 
not waiting for any leave-taking with the rest, who, for 
their part, slunk away in various directions, anxious to 
get their instruments of noise and torment hidden away 
out of sight. 

Jack stuck the dinner-bell under the hay in the stable- 
loft, whence he could smuggle it into the house before his 
mother should get down-stairs in the morning. Then he 
went into the house. 

“Where have you been ?” asked Mrs. Dudley. “I 
came home early so that you needn’t be lonesome.” 

“ Bob Holliday and Harry Weathervane came for me, 
and I found it so lonesome here that I went out with 
them.” 

“ Have you got your lessons ? ” 

“No, ma’am,” said Jack, sheepishly. 

He was evidently not at ease, but his mother said no 
more. He went off to bed early, and lay awake a good 
part of the night. The next morning he brought the old 
dinner-bell and set it down in the very middle of the 
breakfast-table. Then he told his mother all about it. 
And she agreed with him that he had done a very mean 
thing. 


Pronounce : Curmudgeon (cur-mud-jun). Pop'-u-lar (pop'-yu- 
lar). Re-tal'-i-ate. Burlesque (bur-lesk). Ser-e-nade'. Shiv-er- 
ee'. Im-por-tuned' (u long like the word you, not importooned). Taunt 
(not tant). Constitutional (con-sti-tu'-shun-al — u long, not constitoo- 
tional). 

Temporary, for a short time. Curmudgeon, a mean, disagreeable 
fellow. Popular, liked by the people. Compressed, pressed together. 
Elapsed, passed, slipped away. Demonstration, an expression cf 


A IV ATTEMPT TO COLLECT, 69 

opinion or feeling by some outward act. Retaliate, to return like for 
like, to revenge one’s self. Burlesque, intentionally ridiculous and com- 
ical. Serenade, music played or sung under one’s window as a compli- 
ment. Importuned, begged. Shiveree, a local word from charivari 
(shah-ree-var-ee'), a French word meaning a mock serenade of ugly noises. 
Peace-breaker, one who disturbs the peace of a community by unlawful 
noise or by violence. Constitutional, belonging to the very constitution 
of one’s body or mind, fixed in one’s character. Aversion, a turning away 
from, a dislike of. 

Say “constitutional aversion” quickly, with especial care to pronounce 
the u long. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

AN ATTEMPT TO COLLECT. 

Three times a week the scholars of Susan’s “ Green- 
bank Academy ” met at the house of Doctor Lanham to 
receive instruction from the Professor, for the school 
trustees could not agree on a new teacher. Some of the 
people wanted one thing, and some another ; a lady 
teacher was advocated and opposed ; a young man, an 
old man, a new-fashioned, an old-fashioned man, and no 
teacher at all for the rest of the present year, so as to 
save money, were projects that found advocates. The di- 
vision of opinion was so great that the plan of no school 
at all wa^f carried because no other could be. So Susan’s 
class went on for a month, and grew to be quite a little 
society, and then it came to an end. 

One evening, when the lessons were finished, Professor 
Susan said : “ I am sorry to tell you that this is the last 
lesson I can give.” 

And then they all said “ Aw-w-w-w-w ! ” in a melancholy 
way. 

“ I am going away to school myself,” Susan went on. 
“ My father thinks I ought to go to Mr. Niles’s school at 
Port William.” 


7 ° 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY . 


“ I shouldn’t think you’d need to go any more,” said 
Joanna. “ I thought you knew almost everything.” 

“ Oh, bless me ! ” cried Susan. 

In former days the people of the interior — the Mis- 
sissippi Valley — which used then to be called “ the 
West,” were very desirous of education for their children. 
But good teachers were scarce. Ignorant and preten- 
tious men, incompetent wanderers from New England, 
who had grown tired of clock-pedling, or tin-pedling, and 
whose whole stock was assurance, besides impostors of 
other sorts, would get places as teachers because teachers 
were scarce and there were no tests of fitness. Now and 
then a retired Presbyterian minister from Scotland or 
Pennsylvania, or a college graduate from New England, 
would open a school in some country town. Then peo- 
ple who could afford it would send their children from 
long distances to board near the school, and learn Eng- 
lish grammar, arithmetic, and, in some cases, a little 
Latin, or, perhaps, to fit themselves for entrance to some 
of the sturdy little country colleges already growing up 
in that region. At Port William, in Kentucky, there 
was at this time an old minister, Mr. Niles, who really 
knew what he professed to teach, and it was to his school 
that Dr. Lanham was now about to send Susan ; Harvey 
Collins and Henry Weathervane had already entered 
the school. But for poor boys like Jack, and Bob Holli- 
day, and Columbus, who had no money with which to 
pay board, there seemed no chance. 

The evening on which Susan’s class broke up there 
was a long and anxious discussion between Jack Dudley 
and Lis mother. 

“You see, mother, if I could get even two months in 
Mr. Niles’s school I could learn some Latin, and if I once 
get my fingers into Latin, it is like picking bricks out of 
a pavement ; if I once get a start, I can dig it out my- 


A A' ATTEMPT TO COLLECT. 


7 * 


self. I am going to try to find some way to attend that 
school.” 

But the mother only shook her head. 

“ Can’t we move to Port William ? ” said Jack. 

“ How could we ? Here we have a house of our own, 
which couldn’t easily be rented. There we should have to 
pay rent, and where is the money to come from ? ” 

“ Can’t we collect something from Gray?” 

Again Mrs. Dudley shook her head. 

But Jack resolved to try the hard-hearted debtor him- 
self. It was now four years since Jack’s father had been 
persuaded to release a mortgage in order to relieve Fran- 
cis Gray from financial distress. Gray had promised to 
give other security, but his promise had proved worthless. 
Since that time he had made lucky speculations and was 
now a man rather well off, but he kept all his property in 
his wife’s name, as scoundrels and fraudulent debtors usu- 
ally do. All that Jack and his mother had to show for 
the one thousand dollars, with four years’ interest, due 
them, was a judgment against Francis Gray, with the 
sheriff’s return of “ no effects ” on the back of the writ of 
execution against the property “ of the aforesaid Francis 
Gray.” For how could you get money out of a man who 
was nothing in law but an agent for his wife ? 

But Jack believed in his powers of persuasion, and in 
the softness of the human heart. He had never had to do 
with a man in whom the greed for money had turned the 
heart to granite. 

Two or three days later Jack heard that Francis Gray, 
who lived in Louisville, had come to Greenbank. With- 
out consulting his mother, lest she should discourage him, 
Jack went in pursuit of the slippery debtor. He had left 
town, however, to see his fine farm, three miles away, a 
farm which belonged in law to Mrs. Gray, but which be- 
longed of right to Francis Gray’s creditors. 


72 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


Jack found Mr. Gray well-dressed and of plausible man- 
ners. It was hard to speak to so fine a gentleman on the 
subject of money. For a minute Jack felt like backing 
out. But then he contrasted his mother’s pinched cir- 
cumstances with Francis Gray’s abundance, and a little 
wholesome anger came to his assistance. He remembered, 
too, that his cherished projects for getting an education 
were involved, and he mustered courage to speak. 

“Mr. Gray, my name is John Dudley.” 

Jack thought that there was a sign of annoyance on 
Gray’s face at this announcement. 

“You borrowed a thousand dollars of my father once, 
I believe.” 

“Yes, that is true. Your father was a good friend of 
mine.” 

“ He released a mortgage so that you could sell a piece 
of property when you were in trouble.” 

“ Yes, your father was a good friend to me. I acknowl- 
edge that. I wish I had money enough to pay that debt. 
It shall be the very first debt paid when I get on my feet 
again, and I expect to get on my feet, as sure as I live.” 

“ But, you see, Mr. Gray, while my mother is pinched 
for money you have plenty.” 

“It’s all Mrs. Gray’s money. She has plenty. I haven’t 
anything.” 

“ But I want to go to school to Port William. My 
mother is too poor to help me. If you could let me have 
twenty-five dollars ” 

“ But, you see, I can’t. I haven’t got twenty-five dol- 
lars to my name that I can control. But by next New- 
Year’s I mean to pay your mother the whole thousand 
that I owe her.” 

This speech impressed Jack a little, but remembering 
how often Gray had broken such promises, he said : 

“ Don’t you think it a little hard that you and Mrs. Gray 


A.V ATTEMPT TO COLLECT. 


73 


are well off, while my mother is so poor, all because you 
won’t keep your word given to my father?” 

“ But, you see, I haven’t any money, excepting what 
Mrs. Gray lets me have,” said Mr. Gray. 

“ She seems to let you have what you want. Don’t you 
think, if you coaxed her, she would lend you twenty-five 
dollars till New-Year’s, to help me go to school one more 
term ? ” 

Francis Gray was a little stunned by this way of asking 
it. For a moment, looking at the entreating face of the 
boy, he began to feel a disposition to relent a little. This 
was new and strange for him. To pay twenty-five dollars 
that he was not obliged by any self-interest to pay, would 
have been an act contrary to all his habits and to all the 
business maxims in which he had schooled himself. Never- 
theless, he fingered his papers a minute in an undecided 
way, and then he said that he couldn’t do it. If he began 
to pay creditors in that way “it would derange his busi- 
ness.” 

“ But,” urged Jack, “ think how much my father deranged 
his business to oblige you, and now you rob me of my own 
money, and of my chance to get an education.” 

Mr. Gray was a little ruffled, but he got up and went 
out of the room. When Jack looked out of the window a 
minute later, Gray was riding away down the road without 
so much as bidding the troublesome Jack good-morning. 

There was nothing for Jack to do but to return to town 
and make the best of it. But all the way back the tired 
and discouraged boy felt that his last chance of becoming 
an educated man had vanished. He told his mother about 
his attempt on Mr. Gray’s feelings and of his failure. 
They discussed the matter the whole evening, and could 
see no chance for Jack to get the education he wanted. 

“I mean to die a-trying,” said Jack, doggedly, as he 
went off to bed. 


74 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


Pronounce : Granite (gran'-it). Plausible (plau'-zi-ble). 

Pretentious, laying claim to more than is one’s dues, pretending to be 
what one is not. Financial, having to do with money matters. Security, 
something deposited to make sure the payment of a debt, also the written 
promise of another person to make good the debt if the debtor should fail 
to pay it. Fraudulent, given to fraud or cheatery. Judgment, the 
decision or sentence of a judge against a man who owes money. Effects 
here means goods, property of any kind. Plausible manners, manners 
pleasing but not sincere. Relent, to become less harsh, to feel pity. 
Maxim, a principle or rule of conduct. Ruffled, agitated, disturbed. 

What is meant by “ turned the heart to granite ? ” Why is Francis 
Gray called “a slippery debtor?” What does “self-interest” mean? 


CHAPTER XVII. 

AN EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 

The next day but one, there came a letter to Mrs. Dud- 
ley that increased her perplexity. 

“Your Aunt Hannah is sick,” she said to Jack, “and I 
must go to take care of her. I don’t know what to do with 
you.” 

“ I’ll go to Port William to school,” said Jack. “ See if 
I don’t.” 

“ How ? ” asked his mother. “ We don’t know a soul on 
that side of the river. You couldn’t make any arrange- 
ment.” 

“ Maybe I can,” said Jack. “ Bob Holliday used to live 
on the Indiana side, opposite Port William. I mean to talk 
with him.” 

Bob was setting onions in one of the onion-patches 
which abounded about Greenbank, and which were, from 
March to July, the principal sources of pocket-money to 
the boys. Jack thought best to wait until the day’s work 
was finished. Then he sat, where Greenbank boys were 
fond of sitting, on the sloping top-board of a board fence, 


AN EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 


75 


and told his friend Bob of his eager desire to go to Port 
William. 

“I’d like to go too,” said Bob. “This is the last year’s 
schooling I’m to have.” 

“Don’t you know any house, or any place, where we 
could keep ‘ bach ’ together ?” 

“ W’y, yes,” said Bob; “if you didn’t mind rowing 
acrost the river every day, I’ve got a skiff, and there’s the 
old hewed log-house on the Indianny side where we used 
to live. A body might stay as long as he pleased in that 
house, I guess. Judge Kane owns it, and he’s one of the 
best-hearted men in the country.” 

“ It’s eight miles down there,” said Jack. 

“ Only seven if you go by water,” said Bob. “ Let’s put 
out to-morry morning early. Let’s go in the skiff ; we can 
row and cordelle it up the river again, though it is a job.” 

Bright and early the boys started down the river, row- 
ing easily with the strong, steady current of the Ohio, 
holding their way to Judge Kane’s, whose house was over 
against Port William. This Judge Kane was an intelligent 
and wealthy farmer, liked by everybody. He was not a 
lawyer, but had once held the office of “associate judge,” 
and hence the title, which suited his grave demeanor. He 
looked at the two boys out of his small, gray, kindly eyes, 
hardly ever speaking a word. He did not immediately 
answer when they asked permission to occupy the old, un- 
used log-house, but got them to talk about their plans, 
and watched them closely. Then he took them out to see 
his bees. Pie showed them his ingenious hives and a bee- 
house which he had built to keep out the moths by draw- 
ing chalk-lines about it, for over these lines the wingless 
grub of the moth could not crawl. Then he showed them 
a glass hive, in which all the processes of the bees’ house- 
keeping could be observed. After that he took the boys 
to the old log-house, and pointed out some holes in the 


7 6 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


roof that would have to be fixed. And even then he did 
not give them any answer to their request, but told them 
to stay to dinner aad he would see about it, all of which 
was rather hard on boyish impatience. They had a good 
dinner of fried chicken and biscuits and honey, served in 
the neatest manner by the motherly Mrs. Kane. Then the 
Judge suggested that they ought to see Mr. Niles about 
taking them into the school. So his skiff was launched, 
and he rowed with them across the river, which is here 
about a mile wide, to Port William. Here he introduced 
them to Mr. Niles, an elderly man, a little bent and a little 
positive in his tone, as is the habit of teachers, but with 
true kindness in his manner. The boys had much pleas- 
ure at recess time in greeting their old school-mates, Har- 
vey Collins, Henry Weathervane, and, above all, Susan 
Lanham, whom they called Professor. These three took 
a sincere interest in the plans of Bob and Jack, and Susan 
spoke a good word for them to Mr. Niles, who, on his part, 
offered to give Jack Latin without charging him anything 
more than the rates for scholars in the English branches. 
Then they rowed back to Judge Kane’s landing, where he 
told them they could have the house without rent, and 
that they could get slabs and other waste at his little saw- 
mill to fix up the cracks. Then he made kindly sugges- 
tions as to the furniture they should bring — mentioning a 
lantern, an axe, and various other articles necessary for a 
camp life. They bade him good-by at last, and started 
home, now rowing against the current and now cordelling 
.along the river shore, when they grew tired of rowing. In 
cordelling, one sits in the skiff and steers, while the other 
walks on the shore, drawing the boat by a rope over the 
shoulders. The work of rowing and cordelling was hard, 
but they carried light and hopeful hearts. Jack was sure 
now that he should overcome all obstacles and sret a srood 
education. As for Bob, he had no hope higher than that 


HO USEKEEPING EXPERIENCES . 


77 


of worrying through vulgar fractions before settling down 
to hard work. 

Pronounce : Launched (lawncht, not lancht). Cordelle (Cor-del'). 

Exploring expedition, an expedition to examine an unknown or 
partly known country or region. (Why is this chapter entitled an explor- 
ing expedition ?) Setting onions, planting onions by setting in the 
ground the small onion sets, or top-onions, which grow on top of some 
varieties of the onion plant, and when placed in the ground put forth roots 
and leaves and grow to be large onions. Keep bach, a shortened form 
of the phrase “keep bachelors’ hall.” Any house in which there are no 
women, and in which the housekeeping is done by men, is playfully called 
a “bachelors’ hall.” To keep bach is to keep house with no inmates but 
men or boys. Associate judge, a man appointed in some States, formerly, 
to sit on the bench with a judge. Usually two associate judges sat with a 
presiding judge, and had the power, when they both differed from the pre- 
siding judge, of overruling his decisions. Bee-house, a house in which 
many swarms of bees are kept in separate compartments. 

Note. — The use of chalk-lines, formerly, in bee-houses, to prevent the 
destructive grub from entering, was based on the fact that when the grub 
crawled over the chalky surface, the particles of chalk on which he walked 
separated from the wall and fell to the ground with him. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

HOUSEKEEPING EXPERIENCES. 

Mrs. Dudley having gone to Cincinnati the next day 
to attend her sister, who was ill, Jack was left to make 
his arrangements for housekeeping with Bob. Each of 
the boys took two cups, two saucers, two plates, and two 
knives and forks. Things were likely to get lost or 
broken, and therefore they provided duplicates. Besides, 
they might have company to dinner some day, and, 
moreover, they would need the extra dishes to “ hold 
things,” as Jack expressed it. They took no tumblers, 


78 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


but each was provided with a tin cup. Bob remembered 
the lantern, and Jack put in an ax. They did not take 
much food, they could buy that of farmers or in Port 
William. They got a “gang,” or, as they called it, a “trot- 
line,” to lay down in the river for catfish, perch, and shovel- 
nose sturgeon, for there was no game law then. Bob pro- 
vided an iron pot to cook the fish in, and Jack a frying- 
pan and tea-kettle. Their bedding consisted of an empty 
bed-tick, to be filled with straw in Judge Kane’s barn, some 
equally empty pillow-ticks, and a pair of brown sheets and 
two blankets. But, with one thing and another, the skiff 
was well loaded. 

A good many boys stood on the bank as they embarked, 
and among them was Columbus, who had a feeling that 
his best friends were about to desert him, and who would 
gladly have been one of the party if he could have afforded 
the expense. 

In the little crowd which watched the embarkation was 
Frank Rathbone, an old hunter and pioneer, who made 
several good suggestions about their method of loading 
the boat. 

“But where’s your stove ?” he asked. 

“Stove? ’’said Bob. “We can’t take a stove in this 
thing. There’s a big old fireplace in the house that’ll do 
to cook by.” 

“ But hot weather’s cornin’ soon,” said old Hank, “ and 
then you’ll want to cook out in the air, I reckon. Besides, 
it takes a power of wood for a fireplace. If one of you 
will come along with me to the tin-shop, I’ll have a stove 
made for you, of the best paytent-right sort, that’ll go into 
a skiff, and that won’t weigh more’n three or four pounds 
and won’t cost but about two bits.” 

Jack readily agreed to buy as good a thing as a stove 
for twenty-five cents, and so he went with Frank Rath- 
bone to the tin-shop, stopping to get some iron on the way. 


HOUSEKEEPING EXPERIENCES. 


79 


drive about six 



Two half-inch round rods of iron five feet long were cut 
and sharpened at each end. Then the ends were turned 
down so as to make on each rod two pointed legs of 
eighteen inches in length, and thus leave two feet of the 
rod for an horizontal piece. 

“Now,” said the old hunter, “you 
inches of each leg into the ground, and 
stand them about a foot apart. Now 
for a top.” 

For this he had a piece of sheet-iron 
cut out two feet long and fourteen inches 
wide, with a round kettle-hole near one 
end. The edges of the long sides of 
the sheet-iron were bent down to fit over 
the rods. 

“ Lay that over your rods,” said Hank, 

“and you’ve got a stove two foot long, 
one foot high, and more than one foot 
wide, and you can build your fire of 
chips, instid of logs. You can put your tea-kittle, pot, 
pipkin, griddle, skillet, or gridiron on to the hole ” — the 
old man eyed it admiringly. “ It’s good for bilin’, fryin’, or 
brilin’, and all fer two bits. They ain’t many young couples 
gits set up as cheap as that ! ” 

An hour and a half of rowing down stream brought the 
boys to the old cabin. The life there involved more hard 
work than they had expected. Notwithstanding Jack’s 
experience in helping his mother, the baking of corn- 
bread, and the frying of bacon or fish, were difficult tasks, 
and both the boys had red faces when supper was on the 
table. But, as time wore on, they became skilful, and 
though the work was hard, it was done patiently and 
pretty well. Between cooking, and cleaning, and fixing, 
and getting wood, and rowing to school and back, there 
was not a great deal of time left for study out of school, 


OLD HANK S PLAN FOR A 
STOVE. 


8d the ho osier school-boy. 

but Jack made a beginning in Latin, and Bob perspired 
quite as freely over the addition of fractions as over the 
frying-pan. 

They rarely had recreation, excepting that of taking the 
fish off their trot-line in the morning, when there were 
any on it. Once or twice they allowed themselves to visit 
an Indian mound or burial-place on the summit of a 
neighboring hill, where idle boys and other loungers had 
dug up many bones and thrown them down the declivity. 
Jack, who had thoughts of being a doctor, made an effort 
to gather a complete Indian skeleton, but the dry bones 
had become too much mixed up. He could not get any 
three bones to fit together, and his man, as he tried to put 
him together, was the most miscellaneous creature imag- 
inable — neither man, woman, nor child. Bob was a little 
afraid to have these human ruins stored under the house, 
lest he might some night see a ghost with war-paint and 
tomahawk ; but, Jack, as became a boy of scientific tastes, 
pooh-poohed all superstitious or sentimental considera- 
^ tions in the matter. He told Bob that, if he should ever 
see the ghost which that framework belonged to, it would 
be the ghost of the whole Shawnee tribe, for there were 
nearly as many individuals represented as there were 
bones in the skeleton. 

The one thing that troubled Jack was that he couldn’t 
get rid of the image of Columbus as they had seen him 
when they left Greenbank, standing sorrowfully on the 
river bank. The boys often debated between themselves 
how they could manage to have him one of their party, 
but they were both too poor to pay the small tuition fees, 
though his board would not cost much. They could not 
see any way of getting over the difficulty, but they 
talked with Susan about it, and Susan took hold of the 
matter in her fashion by writing to her father on the sub- 
ject. 



■ 









* 







HOUSEKEEPING EXPERIENCES . 81 

The result of her energetic effort was that one after- 
noon, as they came out of school, when the little packet- 
steamer was landing at the wharf, who should come ashore 
but Christopher Columbus, in his best but threadbare 
clothes, tugging away at an old-fashioned carpet-bag, 
which was too much for him to carry. Bob seized the 
carpet-bag and almost lifted the dignified little lad himself 
off his feet in his joyful welcome, while Jack, finding 
nothing else to do, stood still and hurrahed. They soon 
had the dear little spindle-shanks and his great carpet-bag 
stowed away in the skiff. As they rowed to the north 
bank of the river, Columbus explained how Dr. Lanham 
had undertaken to pay his expenses if the boys would take 
him into partnership, but he said he was ’most afraid to 
come, because he couldn’t chop wood, and he wasn’t good 
for much in doing the work. 

‘‘Never mind, honey,” said Bob. “Jack and I don’t 
care whether you work or not. You are worth your keep, 
any time.” 

“Yes,” said Jack, “we even tried hard yesterday to 
catch a young owl to make a pet of, but we couldn’t get it. 
You see, we’re so lonesome.” 

“I suppose I’ll do for a pet owl, won’t I?” said little 
Columbus, with a strange and quizzical smile on his mea- 
gre face. And as he sat there in the boat, with his big 
head and large eyes, the name seemed so appropriate that 
Bob and Jack both laughed outright. 

But the Pet Owl made himself useful in some ways. I 
am sorry to say that the housekeeping of Bob and Jack 
had not always been of the tidiest kind. They were boys, 
and they were in a hurry. But Columbus had the tastes 
of a girl about a house. He did not do any cooking or 
chopping to speak of, but he fixed up. He kept the house 
neat, cleaned the candlestick every morning, and washed 
the windows now and then, and as spring advanced, he 
6 


82 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


brought in handfuls of wild flowers. The boys declared 
that they had never felt at home in the old house until the 
Pet Owl came to be its mistress. He wouldn’t let any- 
thing be left around out of place, but all the pots, pans, 
dishes, coats, hats, books, slates, the lantern, the boot-jack, 
and other slender furniture, were put in order before 
school time, so that when they got back in the afternoon, 
the place was inviting and home-like. When Judge Kane 
and his wife stopped during their Sunday afternoon stroll, 
to see how the lads got on, Mrs. Kane praised their house- 
keeping. 

“ That is all the doings of the Pet Owl,” said Bob. 

“ Pet Owl ? Have you one ?” asked Mrs. Kane. 

The boys laughed, and Bob explained that Columbus 
was the pet. 

That evening the boys had a box of white honey for 
supper, sent over by Mrs. Kane, and the next Saturday 
afternoon Jack and Bob helped Judge Kane finish plant- 
ing his corn-field. 

One unlucky day, Columbus discovered Jack’s box of 
Indian bones under the house, and he turned pale and had 
a fit of shivering for a long time afterward. It was neces- 
sary to move the box into an old stable to quiet his shud- 
dering horror. The next Sunday afternoon, the Pet Owl 
came in with another fit of terror, shivering as before. 

“ What’s the matter now, Lummy ?” said Jack. “ Have 
you seen any more Indians?” 

“ Pewee and his crowd have gone up to the Indian 
Mound,” said Columbus. 

“Well, let’em go,” said Bob. “I suppose they know 
the way, don’t they ? I should like to see them. I’ve been 
so long away from Greenbank that even a yellow dog from 
there would be welcome.” 


GHOSTS. 83 

Pronounce : Du'-pli-cates (u long, not dooplicates). Wharf 
(hworf, not worf). 

Duplicates, two things of the same sort. Trot-line, a very long fishing- 
line attached to the shore at one end and permanently anchored in the water 
at the other. Little gangs or branch lines are attached to it at frequent 
intervals, and each of these has a hook at the end of it. Usually the line 
is examined every day by drawing a boat along under the line, which passes 
over the boat and falls back into the water. The fish are thus removed 
from the hooks, which are baited again. Embarkation, going on board 
a boat. Skillet, a vessel of iron, with legs, a handle, and a cover, used 
for baking or frying, set on a hearth over live coals. Bit, a common word 
used for twelve and a half cents in many parts of the country. There was 
formerly a coin of this value which was called a bit in some places, a shil- 
ling in others, ninepence in others, and a levy or elevenpenny bit in 
others. These terms all come from the names of old coins used before 
the Revolution. Horizontal, running like the horizon, level. Declivity, 
the downward slope of a hill. Miscellaneous, mixed. Pooh-poohed, 
ridiculed, treated as trifling. Superstitious, having to do with a foolish 
belief in invisible powers. Sentimental, having to do with the feelings or 
arising from unreasonable feelings. War-paint, paint put on the face by 
an Indian when going to war. Tomahawk, an Indian club or hatchet. 
Packet-steamer, a steam-boat running at regular hours between certain 
places. 

When Hank Rathbone said “ paytent-right,” what did he mean? 
What is a patent or patent-right ? How do you read these phrases : “ three 
or four, ” “bilin’, fryin’, or brilin’,” “skillet or gridiron?” What is 
wrong in the words “ bilin*, fryin*, or brilin?” Say them correctly. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

GHOSTS. 

Jack and Bob had to amuse Columbus with stories, to 
divert his mind from the notion that Pewee and his party 
meant them some harm. The Indian burying-ground 
was not an uncommon place of resort on Sundays for 
loafers and idlers, and now and then parties came from 
as far as Greenbank, to have the pleasure of a ride and the 


84 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


amusement of digging up Indian relics from the cemetery 
on the hill. This hill-top commanded a view of the Ohio 
River for many miles in both directions, and of the Ken- 
tucky River, which emptied into the Ohio just opposite. 
I do not know whether the people who can find amusement 
in digging up bones and throwing them down-hill, enjoy 
scenery or not, but I have heard it urged that even some 
dumb animals, as horses, enjoy a landscape ; and I once 
knew a large dog, in Switzerland, who would sit enchanted 
for a long time on the brink of a mountain cliff, gazing off 
at the lake below. It is only fair to suppose, therefore, 
that even these idle diggers in Indian mounds had some 
pleasure in looking from a hill-top ; at any rate, they were 
fond of frequenting this one. Pewee, and Riley, and Ben 
Berry, and two or three others of the same feather, had 
come down on this Sunday to see the Indian Mound and 
to find any other sport that might lie in their reach. When 
they had dug up and thrown away down the steep hill-side 
enough bones to satisfy their jackal proclivities, they be- 
gan to cast about them for some more exciting diversion. 
As there were no water-melon patches nor orchards to be 
robbed at this season of the year, they decided to have an 
egg-supper, and then to wait for the moon to rise after 
midnight before starting to row and cordelle their two 
boats up the river again to Greenbank. The fun of an 
egg-supper to Pewee’s party consisted not so much in the 
eggs as in the manner of getting them. Every nest in 
Judge Kane’s chicken-house was rummaged that night, and 
Mrs. Kane found next day that all the nest-eggs were gone, 
and that one of her young hens was missing also. 

About dark, little Allen Mackay, a round-bodied, plump- 
faced, jolly fellow who lived near the place where the 
skiffs were landed, and who had spent the afternoon at 
the Indian Mound, came to the door of the old log-house. 

11 1 wanted to say that you fellows have always done the 


GHOSTS. 


85 


right thing by me. You’ve set me acrost oncet or twicet, 
and you’ve always been ‘clever’ to me, and I don’t want 
to see no harm done you. You’d better look out to-night. 
They’s some chaps from Greenbank down here, and they’re 
in for a frolic, and somebody’s hen-roost’ll suffer, I guess; 
and they don’t like you boys, and they talked about rout- 
ing you out to-night.” 

“ Thank you,” said Jack. 

“ Let ’em rout,” said Bob. 

But the poor little Pet Owl was all in a cold shudder 
again. 

About eleven o’clock, King Pewee’s party had picked 
the last bone of Mrs. Kane’s chicken. It was yet an hour 
and a half before the moon would be up, and there was 
time for some fun. Two boys from the neighborhood, 
who had joined the party, agreed to furnish dough-faces 
for them all. Nothing more ghastly than masks of dough 
can well be imagined, and when the boys had all put them 
on, and had turned their coats wrong-side out, they were 
almost afraid of one another. 

“Now,” said Riley, “ Pewee will knock at the door, 
and when they come with their lantern or candle, we’ll all 
rush in and howl like Indians.” 

“ How do Indians howl ? ” asked Ben Berry. 

“ Oh, any way — like a dog or a wolf, you know. And 
then they’ll be scared to death, and we’ll just pitch their 
beds, and dishes, and everything else out of the door, and 
show them how to clean house.” 

Riley didn’t know that Allen Mackay and Jack Dudley, 
hidden in the bushes, heard this speech, nor that Jack, as 
soon as he had heard the plan, crept away to tell Bob at 
the house what the enemy proposed to do. 

As the crowd neared the log-house, Riley prudently 
fell to the rear, and pushed Pewee to the front. There 
was just the faintest whitening of the sky from the coming 


86 


THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


moon, but the large apple-trees in front of the log-house 
made it very dark, and the dough-face crowd were obliged 
almost to feel their way as they came into the shadow of 
these trees. Just as Riley was exhorting Pewee to knock 
at the door, and the whole party was tittering at the pros- 
pect of turning Bob, Jack, and Columbus out of bed and 
out of doors, they all stopped short and held their breaths. 

“Good gracious! Julius Caesar! sakes alive!” whis- 
pered Riley. “ What — wh — what is that ?” 

Nobody ran. All stood as though frozen in their places. 
For out from behind the corner of the house came slowly 
a skeleton head. It was ablaze inside, and the light shone 
out of all the openings. The thing had no feet, no hands, 
and no body. It actually floated through the air, and 
now and then joggled and danced a little. It rose and fell, 
but still came nearer and nearer to the attacking party of 
dough-faces, who for their part could not guess that Bob 
Holliday had put a lighted candle into an Indian’s skull, 
and then tied this ghost’s lantern to a wire attached to the 
end of a fishing-rod, which he operated from behind the 
house. 

Pe wee’s party drew close together, and Riley whispered 
hoarsely : 

“The house is ha’nted.” 

Just then the hideous and fiery death’s head made a cir- 
cuit, and swung, grinning, into Riley’s face, who could 
stand no more, but broke into a full run toward the river. 
At the same instant, Jack tooted a dinner-horn, Judge 
Kane’s big dog ran barking out of the log-house, and the 
enemy were routed like the Midianites before Gideon. 
Their consternation was greatly increased at finding their 
boats gone, for Allen Mackay had towed them into a lit- 
tle creek out of sight, and hidden the oars in an elder 
thicket. Riley and one of the others were so much afraid 
of the ghosts that haunted the old house, that they set 


GHOSTS . 


87 


out straightway for Greenbank, on foot. Pewee and the 
others searched everywhere for the boats, and at last sat 
down and waited for daylight. Just as day was breaking, 
Bob Holliday came down to the river with a towel, as 
though for a morning bath. Very accidentally, of course, 
he came upon Pewee and his party, all tired out, sitting 
on the bank in hope that day might throw some light on 
the fate of their boats. 

‘‘Hello, Pewee! You here? What’s the matter?” 
said Bob, with feigned surprise. 

“Some thief took our skiffs. We’ve been looking for 
them all night, and can’t find them.” 

“That’s curious,” said Bob, sitting down and leaning 
his head on his hand. “Where did you get supper last 
night?” 

“ Oh ! we brought some with us.” 

“ Look here, Pewee, I’ll bet I can find your boats.” 

“How ?” 

“You give me money enough among you to pay for the 
eggs and the chicken you had for supper, and I’ll find out 
who hid your boats and where the oars are, and it’ll all be 
square.” 

Pewee was now sure that the boats had been taken as in- 
demnity for the chicken and the eggs. He made every 
one of the party contribute something until he had col- 
lected what Bob thought sufficient to pay for the stolen 
things, and Bob took it and went up and found Judge 
Kane, who had just risen, and left the money with him. 
Then he made a circuit to Allen Mackay’s, waked him up, 
and got the oars, which they put into the boats ; and push- 
ing these out of their hiding-place, they rowed them into 
the river, delivering them to Pewee and company, who 
took them gratefully. Jack and Columbus had now made 
their appearance, and as Pewee got into his boat, he 
thought to repay Bob’s kindness with a little advice. 


88 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY . 


“ I say, if I was you fellers, you know, I wouldn’t stay 
in that old cabin a single night.” 

“ Why ? ” asked Jack. 

“Because,” said Pewee, “I’ve heard tell that it is 
ha’nted.” 

“ Ghosts aren’t anything when you get used to them,” 
said Jack. “We don’t mind them at all.” 

“ Don’t you ? ” said Pewee, who was now rowing against 
the current. 

“ No,” said Bob, “nor dough-faces neither.” 

Pronounce : Di-vert'. Op'-e-ra-ted. Circuit (sir'kit). Fre- 

quent -ing. What is wrong in “ha’nted?” When Allen Mackay says 
“ acrost,” “oncet ” (wunst), “ twicet ” (twiste), what should he say? 

Divert, turn away. Proclivities, propensities, inclinations. Jackal 
proclivities, inclinations to dig up the dead, as jackals are said to do. 
Clever, skilful, able. Sometimes and in some places the word is used 
for handsome. But its commonest sense in America is that in which it is 
used in the text — good-natured, obliging. In a circuit, in something like 
a circle. Consternation, fright, alarm. Indemnity, something to pay 
for loss or damage. 

What is the meaning of the phrase “of the same feather?” Do you 
know any saying about birds of a feather? What does it mean ? Why is 
a skull with a candle in it called a “ ghost’s lantern?” Do you know 
anything of the Bible story of the defeat of the Midianites by Gideon ? 
(Gideon’s men made a great noise by breaking pitchers and blowing trum- 
pets when they attacked the Midianites. ) 


CHAPTER XX. 

THE RETURN HOME. 

As Mr. Niles’s school-term drew to a close, the two boys 
began to think of their future. 

“ I expect to work with my hands, Jack,” said Bob ; “ I 
haven’t got a head for books, as you have. But I’d like 


THE RETURN ' HOME. 


89 


to know a leetle more before I settle down. I wish I could 
make enough at something to be able to go to school next 
winter.” 

“ If I only had your strength and size, Bob, I’d go to 
work for somebody as a farmer. But I have more than 
myself to look after. I must help mother after this term 
is out. I must get something to do, and then learning 
will be slow business. They talk about Ben Franklin 
studying at night and all that, but it’s a little hard on a 
fellow who hasn’t the constitution of a Franklin. Still, 
I’m going to have an education, by hook or crook.” 

At this point in the conversation, Judge Kane came in. 
As usual, he said little, but he got the boys to talk about 
their own affairs. 

“When do you go home?” he asked. 

“Next Friday evening, when school is out,” said Jack. 

“ And what are you going to do ? ” he asked of Bob 

“ Get some work this summer, and then try to get an- 
other winter of schooling next year,” was the answer. 

“ What kind of work ? ” 

“Oh, I can farm better than I can do anything else,” 
said Bob. “And I like it, too.” 

And then Judge Kane drew from Jack a full account of 
his affairs, and particularly of the debt due from Gray, 
and of his interview with Gray. 

“If you could get a few hundred dollars, so as to make 
your mother feel easy for a while, living as she does in her 
own house, you could go to school next winter.” 

“ Yes, and then I could get on after that, somehow, by 
myself, I suppose,” said Jack. “ But the few hundred dol- 
lars is as much out of my reach as a million would be, and 
mv father used to say that it was a bad thing to get into 
the way of figuring on things that we could never reach.” 

The Judge sat still, and looked at Jack out of his half- 
closed gray eyes for a minute in silence. 


9 o 


THE H00S1ER SCHOOL-BOY. 


“ Come up to the house with me,” he said, rising. 

Jack followed him to the house, where the Judge opened 
his desk and took out a red-back memorandum-book, and 
dictated while Jack copied in his own handwriting the de- 
scription of a piece of land on a slip of paper. 

“ If you go over to school, to-morrow, an hour earlier 
than usual,” he said, “call at the county clerk’s office, 
show him your memorandum, and find out in whose name 
that land stands. It is timber-land five miles back, and 
worth five hundred dollars. When you get the name of 
the owner, you will know what to do ; if not, you can ask 
me, but you’d better not mention my name to anybody in 
this matter.” 

Jack thanked Mr. Kane, but left him feeling puzzled. 
In fact, the farmer-judge seemed to like to puzzle people, 
or at least he never told anything more than was neces- 
sary. 

The next morning the boys were off early to Port Will- 
iam. Jack wondered if the land might belong to his 
father, but then he was sure his father never had any land 
in Kentucky. Or, was it the property of some dead uncle 
or cousin, and was he to find a fortune, like the hero of a 
cheap story ? But when the county clerk, whose office it 
is to register deeds in that county, took the little piece of 
paper, and after scanning it, took down some great deed- 
books and mortgage-books, and turned the pages a while, 
and then wrote, “ Francis Gray, owner, no incumbrance,” 
on the same slip with the description, Jack had the key to 
Mr. Kane’s puzzle. 

It was now Thursday forenoon, and Jack was eager on 
all accounts to get home, especially to see the lawyer in 
charge of his father’s claim against Mr. Gray. So the 
next day at noon, as there was nothing left but the closing 
exercises, the three boys were excused, and bade good- 
by to their teacher and school-mates, and rowed back to 


THE RETURN- HOME. 


9 1 


their own side of the river. They soon had the skiff 
loaded, for all three were eager to see the folks at Green- 
bank. Jack’s mother had been at home more than a 
week, and he was the most impatient of the three. But 
they could not leave without a good-by to Judge Kane 
and his wife, to which good-by they added a profusion of 
bashful, boyish thanks for kindness received. The Judge 
walked to the boat-landing with them. Jack began to tell 
him about the land. 

“ Don’t say anything about it to me, nor to anybody 
else but your lawyer,” said Mr. Kane ; “and do not men- 
tion my name. You may say to your lawyer that the land 
has just changed hands, and the matter must be attended 
to soon. It won’t stand exposed in that way long.” 

When the boys were in the boat ready to start, Mr. 
Kane said to Bob : 

“You wouldn’t mind working for me this summer at the 
regular price ? ” 

“ I’d like to,” said Bob. 

“ How soon can you come ?” 

“Next Wednesday evening.” 

“I’ll expect you,” said the Judge, and he turned away 
up the bank, with a slight nod and a curt “Good-by,” 
while Bob said: “What a curious man he is !” 

“Yes, and as good as he’s curious,” added Jack. 

It was a warm day for rowing, but the boys were both a 
little homesick. Under the shelter of a point where the 
current was not too strong the two rowed arid made fair 
headway, sometimes encountering an eddy which gave 
them a lift. But whenever the current set strongly toward 
their side of the river, and whenever they found it neces- 
sary to round a point, one of them would leap out on the 
pebbly beach and, throwing the boat-rope over his shoul- 
der, set his strength against the stream. The rope, or 
cordelle — a word that has come down from the first French 


9 2 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


travellers and traders in the great valley — was tied to the 
row-locks. It was necessary for one to steer in the stern 
while the other played tow-horse, so that each had his turn 
at rest and at work. After three hours’ toil the wharf- 
boat of the village was in sight, and all sorts of familiar 
objects gladdened their hearts. They reached the land- 
ing, and then, laden with things, they hurriedly cut across 
the commons to their homes. 

As soon as Jack’s first greeting with his mother was 
over, she told him that she thought she might afford him 
one more quarter of school. 

“No,” said Jack, “you’ve pinched yourself long enough 
for me ; now it’s time I should go to work. If you try to 
squeeze out another quarter of school for me you’ll have 
to suffer for it. Besides, I don’t see how you can do it, 
unless Gray comes down, and I think I have now in my 
pocket something that will make him come down.” And 
Jack’s face brightened at the thought of the slip of paper 
in the pocket of his roundabout. 

Without observing the last remark, nor the evident ela- 
tion of Jack’s feelings, Mrs. Dudley proceeded to tell him 
that she had been offered a hundred and twenty dollars 
for her claim against Gray. 

“Who offered it?” asked Jack. 

“Mr. Tinkham, Gray’s agent. May be Gray is buying 
up his own debts, feeling tired of holding property in 
somebody else’s name.” 

“A hundred and twenty dollars for a thousand ! The 
rascal ! I wouldn’t take it,” broke out Jack, impetuously. 

“That’s just the way I feel, Jack. I’d rather wait for- 
ever, if it wasn’t for your education. I can’t afford to 
have you lose that. I’m to give an answer this even- 
ing.” 

“We won’t do it,” said Jack. “I’ve got a memoran- 
dum here,” and he took the slip of paper from his pocket 


THE RETURN HOME . 


93 


and unfolded it, “ that’ll bring more money out of him 
than that. I’m going to see Mr. Beal at once.” 

Mrs. Dudley looked at the paper without understand- 
ing just what it was, and, without giving her any further 
explanation, but only a warning to secrecy, Jack made off 
to the lawyer’s office. 

“Where did you get this ?” asked Mr. Beal. 

“ I promised not to mention his name — I mean the 
name of the one who gave me that. I went to the clerk’s 
office with the description, and the clerk wrote the words 
‘Francis Gray, owner, no incumbrance.’” 

“ I wish I had had it sooner,” said the lawyer. “ It will 
be best to have our judgment recorded in that county to- 
morrow,” he continued. “Could you go down to Port 
William ? ” 

“Yes, sir,” said Jack, a little reluctant to go back. “ I 
could if I must.” 

“I don’t think the mail will do,” added Mr. Beal. 
“This thing came just in time. We should have sold the 
claim to-night. This land ought to fetch five hundred 
dollars.” 

Mr. Tinkham, agent for Francis Gray, was much disap- 
pointed that night when Mrs. Dudley refused to sell her 
claim against Gray. 

“You’ll never get anything any other way,” he said. 

“Perhaps not, but we’ve concluded to wait,” said Mrs. 
Dudley. “ We can’t do much worse if we get nothing 
at all.” 

After a moment’s reflection, Mr. Tinkham said : 

“ I’ll do a little better by you, Mrs. Dudley. I’ll give you 
a hundred and fifty. That’s the very best I can do.” 

“ I will not sell the claim at present,” said Mrs. Dudley. 
“ It is of no use to offer.” 

It would have been better if Mrs. Dudley had not spoken 
so positively. Mr. Tinkham was set a-thinking. Why 


94 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


wouldn’t the widow sell ? Why had she changed her mind 
since yesterday ? Why did Mr. Beal, the lawyer, not ap- 
pear at the consultation ? All these questions the shrewd 
little Tinkham asked himself, and all these questions he 
asked of Francis Gray that evening. 


Pronounce : Fig'-u-ring (not figgering). Dic'-ta-ted (not dic-ta'- 
ted). 

Memorandum, something written so as not to be forgotten. Register, 
write down in a book, record. Wharf-boat, on the Ohio and some other 
rivers, a flat-boat with a roof, sometimes with a second-story cabin above, and 
kept lying near to a village or landing-place. Steamboats deposit freight 
and land their passengers on the wharf-boat, from which a wide movable 
staging leads to the shore. The wharf-boat is moved as the water rises or 
falls. Roundabout, a short jacket. 


CHAPTER XXL 

A FOOT-RACE FOR MONEY. 

“ They’ve got wind of something,” said Mr. Tinkham 
to Mr. Gray, “or else they are waiting for you to resume 
payment — or else the widow’s got money from somewhere 
for her present necessities.” 

“ I don’t know what hope they can have of getting 
money out of me,” said Gray, with a laugh. “ I’ve tan- 
gled everything up, so that Beal can’t find a thing to levy 
on. I have but one piece of property exposed, and that’s 
, not in this State.” 

“Where is it?” asked Tinkham. 

“ It’s in Kentucky, five miles back of Port William. I 
took it last week in a trade, and I haven’t yet made up my 
mind what to do with it.” 

“That’s the very thing,” said Tinkham, with his little 
face drawn to a point — “the very thing. Mrs. Dudley’s 


A FOOT-RACE FOR MONEY. 


95 


son came home from Port William yesterday, where he 
has been at school. They’ve heard of that land, I’m 
afraid ; for Mrs. Dudley is very positive that she will not 
sell the claim at any price.” 

“ I’ll make a mortgage to my brother on that land, and 
send it off from the mail-boat as I go down to-morrow,” 
said Gray. 

“ That’ll be too late,” said Tinkham. “ Beal will have his 
judgment recorded as soon as the packet gets there. You’d 
better go by the packet, get off, and see the mortgage re- 
corded yourself, and then take the mail-boat.” 

To this Gray agreed, and the next day, when Jack went 
on board the packet “ Swiftsure,” he found Mr. Francis 
Gray going aboard also. Mr. Beal had warned Jack that 
he must not let anybody from the packet get to the clerk’s 
office ahead of him — that the first paper deposited for 
record would take the land. Jack wondered why Mr. 
Francis Gray was aboard the packet, which went no far- 
ther than Madison, while Mr. Gray’s home was in Louis- 
ville. He soon guessed, however, that Gray meant to 
land at Port William, and so to head him off. Jack looked 
at Mr. Gray’s form, made plump by good feeding, and 
felt safe. He couldn’t be very dangerous in a foot-race. 
Jack reflected with much hopefulness that no boy in school 
could catch him in a straight-away run when he was fox. 
He would certainly leave the somewhat puffy Mr. Francis 
Gray behind. 

But in the hour’s run down the river, including two 
landings at Minuit’s and Craig’s, Jack had time to re- 
member that Francis Gray was a cunning man, and might 
head him off by some trick or other. A vague fear took 
possession of him, and he resolved to be first off the boat 
before any pretext could be invented to stop him. 

Meantime, Francis Gray had looked at Jack’s lithe legs 
with apprehension. “ I can never beat that boy,” he had 


9 6 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


reflected. “ My running days are over.” Finding among 
the deck passengers a young fellow who looked as though 
he needed money, Gray approached him with this ques- 
tion : 

“Do you belong in Port William, young man ?” 

“ I don’t belong nowhere else, I reckon,” answered the 
seedy fellow, with shuffling impudence. 

“ Do you know where the county clerk’s office is ? ” 
asked Mr. Gray. 

“Yes, and the market-house. I can show you the way 
to the jail, too, if you want to know ; but I s’pose you’ve 
been there many a time,” laughed the “ wharf rat.” 

Gray was irritated at this rudeness, but he swallowed 
his anger. 

“Would you like to make five dollars ? ” 

“Now you’re talkin’ interestin’. Why didn’t you begin 
at that eend of the subjick ? I’d like to make five dollars 
as well as the next feller, provided it isn’t to be made by 
too much awful hard work.” 

“ Can you run well ?” 

“ If they’s money at t’other eend of the race I can run 
like sixty fer a spell. ’ Tain’t my common gait, howsum- 
ever.” 

“If you’ll take this paper,” said Gray, “and get it to 
the county clerk’s office before anybody else gets there 
from this boat, I’ll give you five dollars.” 

“ Honor bright ? ” asked the chap, taking the paper, 
drawing a long breath, and looking as though he had dis- 
covered a gold mine. 

“ Honor bright,” answered Gray. “You must jump off 
first of all, for there’s a boy aboard that will beat you if 
he can. No pay if you don’t win.” 

“Which is the one that’ll run ag’in’ me?” asked the 
long-legged fellow. 

Gray described Jack, and told the young man to go out 


A FOOT-RACE FOR MONEY. 


97 


forward and he would see him. Gray was not willing to 
be seen with the “ wharf-rat,” lest suspicions should be 
awakened in Jack Dudley’s mind. But after the shabby 
young man had gone forward and looked at Jack, he came 
back with a doubtful air. 

“ That’s Hoosier Jack, as we used to call him,” said the 
shabby young man. “ He an’ two more used to row a 
boat acrost the river every day to go to ole Niles’s school. 
He’s a hard one to beat — they say he used to lay the 
whole school out on prisoners’ base, and that he could 
leave ’em all behind on. fox.” 

‘‘You think you can’t do it, then ? ” asked Gray. 

“Gimme a little start and I reckon I'll fetch it. It’s 
up-hill part of the way and he may lose his wind, for it’s 
a good h’alf-mile. You must make a row with him at the 
gang-plank, er do somethin’ to kinder hold him back. 
The wind’s down stream to-day and the boat’s shore to 
swing in a little aft. I’ll jump for it and you keep him 
back.” 

To this Gray assented. 

As the shabby young fellow had predicted, the boat did 
swing around in the wind, and have some trouble in bring- 
ing her bow to the wharf-boat. The captain stood on the 
hurricane-deck calling to the pilot to “back her,” “stop 
her,” “go ahead on her,” “go ahead on yer labberd,” and 
“'back on yer stabberd.” Now, just as the captain w T as 
backing the starboard wheel and going ahead on his lar- 
board, so as to bring the boat around right, Mr. Gray 
turned on Jack. 

“ What are you treading on my toes for, you impudent 
young rascal ?” he broke out. 

Jack colored and was about to reply sharply, when he 
caught sight of the shabby young fellow, who just then 
leaped from the gunwale of the boat amidships and barely 
reached the wharf. Jack guessed why Gray had tried to 
7 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


irritate him — he saw that the well-known “ wharf-rat ” was 
to be his competitor. But what could he do ? The wind 
held the bow of the boat out, the gang-plank which had 
been pushed out ready to reach the wharf-boat was still 
firmly grasped by the deck-hands, and the farther end of 
it was six feet from the wharf, and much above it. It 
would be some minutes before anyone could leave the 
boat in the regular way. There was only one chance to 
defeat the rascally Gray. Jack concluded to take it. 

He ran out upon the plank amidst the harsh cries of 
the deck-hands, who tried to stop him, and the oaths of 
the mate, who thundered at him, with the. stern order of 
the captain from the upper deck, who called out to him to 
go back. 

But, luckily, the steady pulling ahead of the larboard 
engine, and the backing of the starboard, began just then 
to bring the boat around, the plank sank down a little un- 
der Jack’s weight, and Jack made the leap to the wharf, 
hearing the confused cries, orders, oaths, and shouts from 
behind him, as he pushed through the crowd. 

“ Stop that thief ! ” cried Francis Gray to the people on 
the wharf -boat, but in vain. Jack glided swiftly through 
the people, and got on shore before anybody could check 
him. He charged up the hill after the shabby young fel- 
low, who had a decided lead, while some of the men on 
the wharf-boat pursued them both, uncertain which was 
the thief. Such another pell-mell race Port William had 
never seen. Windows flew up and heads went out. Small 
boys joined the pursuing crowd, and dogs barked indis- 
criminately and uncertainly at the heels of everybody. 
There were cries of “ Hurrah for long Ben ! ” and “ Hur- 
rah for Hoosier Jack ! ” Some of Jack’s old school-mates 
essayed to stop him to find out what it was all about, but 
he would not relax a muscle, and he had no time to an- 
swer any questions. He saw the faces of the people dimly ; 


A FOOT-RACE FOR MONEY. 


99 


he heard the crowd crying after him, “ Stop, thief ! ” he 
caught a glimpse of his old teacher, Mr. Niles, regarding 
him with curiosity as he darted by ; he saw an anxious 
look in Judge Kane’s face as he passed him on a street 
corner. But Jack held his eyes on Long Ben, whom he 
pursued as a dog does a fox. He had steadily gained on 
the fellow, but Ben had too much the start, and, unless he 
should give out, there would be little chance for Jack to 
overtake him. One thinks quickly in such moments. 
Jack remembered that there were two ways of reaching 
the county clerk’s office. To keep the street around the 
block was the natural way — to take an alley through the 
square was neither longer nor shorter. But by running 
down the alley he would deprive Long Ben of the spur of 
seeing his pursuer, and he might even make him think 
that Jack had given out. Jack had played this trick when 
playing hound and fox, and at any rate he would by this 
turn shake off the crowd. So into the alley he darted, 
and the bewildered pursuers kept on crying “stop thief! ” 
after Long Ben, whose reputation was none of the best. 
Somebody ahead tried to catch the shabby young fellow, 
and this forced Ben to make a slight curve, which gave 
Jack the advantage, so that, just as Ben neared the office, 
Jack rounded a corner out of the alley, and entered ahead 
of him, dashed up to the clerk’s desk, and deposited the 
judgment. 

“ For record,” he gasped. 

The next instant the shabby young fellow pushed for- 
ward the mortgage. 

“ Mine first ! ” cried Long Ben. 

“ I’ll take yours when I get this entered,” said the clerk, 
quietly, as became a public officer. 

“I got here first,” said Long Ben. 

But the clerk looked at the clock and entered the date 
on the back of Jack’s paper, putting “one o’clock and 


IOO 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


eighteen minutes” after the date. Then he wrote “one 
o’clock and nineteen minutes ” on the paper which Long 
Ben handed them. The office was soon crowded with peo- 
ple discussing the result of the race, and a part of them 
were even now in favor of seizing one or the other of the 
runners for a theft, which some said had been committed 
on the packet, and others declared was committed on the 
wharf-boat. Francis Gray came in, and could not conceal 
his chagrin. 

“ I meant to do the fair thing by you,” he said to Jack, 
severely, “ but now you’ll never get a cent out of me.” 

“ I’d rather have the law on men like you, than have a 
thousand of your sort of fair promises,” said Jack. 

“ I’ve a mind to strike you,” said Gray. 

“ The Kentucky law is hard on a man who strikes a 
minor,” said Judge Kane, who had entered at that moment. 

Mr. Niles came in to learn what was the matter, and 
Judge Kane, after listening quietly to the talk of the peo- 
ple, until the excitement subsided, took Jack over to his 
house, whence the boy trudged home in the late after- 
noon full of hopefulness. 

Gray’s land realized as much as Mr. Beal expected, 
and Jack studied hard all summer, so as to get as far 
ahead as possible by the time school should begin in the 
autumn. 


Pronounce : Resume (re-zume', not re-zoom, but more like reez- 
yume). Lithe (th as in this, thy, that, not as thin, thing, cloth). Com- 
pet'-i-tor. Muscle (mus’-el), Gunwale (gunnel). 

Got wind of something, timid wild animals depend much on their 
sense of smell to discover an enemy. For this reason, hunters, when they 
can, approach them on the side opposite to that from which the wind blows. 
When a deer smells the hunter and runs off, he is said to have “got wind 
of him.” Hence, when a person suspects or hears of anything concealed 
from him, he is said to have got wind of it. Resume payment, to begin 
to pay one’s debts again after having failed to pay for a certain period. 


THE NEW TEACHER. 


IOI 


Vague, indefinite; to have a vague fear is to fearsome harm without 
knowing just what. Pretext, a pretended reason, a false motive assigned 
for doing something. Lithe, limber, flexible. Wharf-rat, the large rat 
which on its first entering this country by ships and boats, inhabited the 
wharves. Hence, any idle boy or man who lingers about the wharf. 
“ For a spell,” expression used by the ignorant, meaning ‘"'for a short 
time.” Predicted, told beforehand. Aft, further back on a boat, toward 
the stern of a boat. Hurricane-deck, the uppermost deck. Starboard, 
the right side of a vessel. Larboard, the left or “port ” side of a vessel. 
Amidships, in or near the middle of a boat or other vessel. Gunwale, 
the outer timber on the lower deck of a steamboat. Competitor, one 
who tries to excel another. Pell-mell, confused, irregular. Essayed, 
tried. Deposited, laid down. Entered, set down in a record or book, 
or on a paper. Minor, one under twenty-one years of age. Subsided, 
went down. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

THE NEW TEACHER. 

The new teacher who was employed to take the Green- 
bank school in the autumn was a young man from col- 
lege. Standing behind the desk hitherto occupied by 
the grim-faced Mr. Ball, young Williams looked very 
mild by contrast. He was evidently a gentle-spirited 
man as compared with the old master, and King Pewee 
and his crowd were gratified in noting this fact. They 
could have their own way with such a master as that ! 
When he called the school to order, there remained a 
bustle of curiosity and mutual recognition among the 
children. Riley and Pewee kept up a little noise by way 
of defiance. They had heard that the new master did not 
intend to whip. Now he stood quietly behind his desk, 
and waited a few moments in silence for the whispering 
group to be still. Then he slowly raised and levelled his 
finger at Riley and Pewee, but still said nothing. There 
was something so firm and quiet about his motion — some- 


102 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


thing that said, “I will wait all day, but you must be 
still ” — that the boys could not resist it. 

By the time they were quiet, two of the girls had got 
into a titter over something, and the forefinger was aimed 
at them. The silent man made the pupils understand 
that he was not to be trifled with. 

When at length there was quiet, he made everyone lay 
down book or slate and face around toward him. Then 
with his pointing finger, or with a little slap of his hands 
together, or with a word or two at most, he got the school 
still again. 

“ I hope we shall be friends,” he said, in a voice full of 
kindliness. “All I want is to ” 

But at this point Riley picked up his slate and book, 
and turned away. The master snapped his fingers, but 
Riley affected hot to hear him. 

“ That young man will put down his slate.” The mas- 
ter spoke in a low tone, as one who expected to be obeyed, 
and the slate was reluctantly put upon the desk. 

“When I am talking to you, I want you to hear,” he 
went on, very quietly. “ I am paid to teach you. One 
of the things I have to teach you is good manners. You,” 
pointing to Riley, “ are old enough to know better than 
to take your slate when your teacher is speaking, but 
perhaps you have never been taught what are good man- 
ners. I’ll excuse you this time. Now, you all see those 
switches hanging here behind me. I did not put them 
there. I do not say that I shall not use them. Some 
boys have to be whipped, I suppose — like mules — and 
when I have tried, I may find that I cannot get on with- 
out the switches, but I hope not to have to use them.” 

Here Riley, encouraged by the master’s mildness, and 
irritated by the rebuke he had received, began to make 
figures on his slate. 

“ Bring me that slate,” said the teacher. 


THE NEW TEACHER. 


103 


Riley was happy that he had succeeded in starting a 
row. He took his slate and his arithmetic, and shuffled 
up to the master in a half-indolent, half-insolent way. 

“ Why do you take up your work when I tell you not 
to ? ” asked the new teacher. 

“ Because I didn’t want to waste all my morning. I 
wanted to do my sums.” 

“ You are a remarkably industrious youth, I take it.” 
The young master looked Riley over, as he said this, from 
head to foot. The whole school smiled, for there was no 
lazier boy than this same Riley. “ I suppose,” the teacher 
continued, “ that you are the best scholar in school — the 
bright and shining light of Greenbank.” 

Here there was a general titter at Riley. 

“ I cannot have you sit away down at the other end of 
the school-room and hide your excellent example from the 
rest. Stand right up here by me and cipher, that all the 
school may see how industrious you are.” 

Riley grew very red in the face and pretended to 
“ cipher,” holding his book in his hand. 

“ Now,” said the new teacher, “ I have but just one 
rule for this school, and I will write it on the black-board 
that all may see it.” 

He took chalk and wrote : 

DO RIGHT. 

“ That is all. Let us go to our lessons.” 

For the first two hours that Riley stood on the floor he 
pretended to enjoy it. But when recess came and went, 
and Mr. Williams did not send him to his seat, he began 
to shift from one foot to the other and from his heels to 
his toes, and to change his slate from the right hand to 
the left. His class was called, and after recitation he was 
sent back to his place. He stood it as best he could until 


104 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY , . 


the noon recess ; but when, at the beginning of the after- 
noon session, Mr. Williams again called his “excellent 
scholar” and set him up, Riley broke down and said : 

“ I think you might let me go now.” 

“ Are you tired ?” asked the cruel Mr. Williams. 

“Yes, I am,” and Riley hung his head, while the rest 
smiled. 

“ And are you ready to do what the good order of the 
school requires ?” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“Very well ; you can go.” 

The chopfallen Riley went back to his seat, convinced 
that it would not do to rebel against the new teacher 
even if he did not use the beech switches. 

But Mr. Williams was also quick to detect the willing 
scholar. He gave Jack extra help on his Latin after 
school was out, and Jack grew very proud of the teacher’s 
affection for him. 


Pronounce : Bustle (bus'-el), ir'-ri-ta-ted, not ir-ri-ta'-ted). Chop'- 
fal-len. Re-luc'-tant-ly. 

Defiance, opposition, expression of willingness to quarrel or fight. 
Chopfallen, depressed, dejected — the word originally meant with the 
lower jaw, or “chop,” hanging down. Reluctantly, unwilling, with 
regret. Irritated, made angry. 

What is the meaning of grim-faced? What is meant by the words 
“shuffled up to the master?” What is the difference between a half- 
indolent manner and a half-insolent manner ? 


CHASING THE FOX. 


105 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

CHASING THE FOX. 

All the boys in the river towns thirty years ago — and 
therefore the boys in Greenbank, also — took a great in- 
terest in the steam-boats which plied up and down the 
Ohio. Each had his favorite boat, and boasted of her 
speed and excellence. Every one of them envied those 
happy fellows whose lot it was to “run on the river” as 
cabin-boys. Boats were a common topic of conversation 
— their build, their engines, their speed, their officers, their 
mishaps, and all the incidents of their history. 

So it was that from the love of steam-boats, which 
burned so brightly in the bosom of the boy who lived on 
the banks of that great and lovely river, there grew up the 
peculiar game of “boats’ names.” I think the game was 
started at Louisville or New Albany, where the falls inter- 
rupt navigation, and where many boats of the upper and 
lower rivers are assembled. 

One day, as the warm air of Indian summer in this mild 
climate made itself felt, the boys assembled on the ever- 
green “ blue-grass,” after the snack at the noon recess, to 
play boats’ names. 

Through Jack’s influence, Columbus, who did not like 
to play with the A B C boys, was allowed to take the hand- 
kerchief and give out the first name. All the rest stood 
up in a row like a spelling-class, while little Columbus, 
standing in front of them, held a knotted handkerchief 
with which to scourge them when the name should be 
guessed. The arm which held the handkerchief was so 
puny that the boys laughed to see the feeble lad stand 
there in a threatening attitude. 


106 THE HO OSIER SCIIOOL-BOY. 

“ I say, Lum, don’t hit too hard, now ; my back is ten- 
der,” said Bob Holliday. 

“ Give us an easy one to guess,” said Riley, coaxingly. 

Columbus, having come from the back country, did 
not know the names of half a dozen boats, and what he 
knew about were those which touched daily at the wharf 
of Greenbank. 

“F n,” he said. 

“ Fashion,” cried all the boys at once, breaking into 
unrestrained mirth at the simplicity that gave them the 
name of Captain Glenn’s little Cincinnati and Port William 
packet, which landed daily at the village wharf. Colum- 
bus now made a dash at the boys, who were obliged to run 
to the school-house and back whenever a name was guessed, 
suffering a beating all the way from the handkerchief of 
the one who had given out the name, though, indeed, the 
punishment Lum was able to give was very slight. It 
was doubtful who had guessed first, since the whole party 
had cried “Fashion” almost together, but it was settled 
at last in favor of Harry Weathervane, who was sure to 
give out hard names, since he had been to Cincinnati 
recently, and had gone along the levee reading the names 
of those boats that did business above that city, and so 
were quite unknown, unless by report, to the boys of 
Greenbank. 

“A A s,” were the three letters which Harry 

gave, and Ben Berry guessed “Archibald Ananias,” and 
Tom Holcroft said it was “ Amanda Amos,” and at last all 
gave it up; whereupon Harry told them it was “Alvin 
Adams,” and proceeded to give out another. 

“C A P x,” he said next time. 

“ Caps,” said Riley, mistaking the x for an s ; and then 
Bob Holliday suggested “ Hats and Caps,” and Jack wanted 
to have it “Boots and Shoes.” But Johnny Meline re- 
membered that he had read of such a name for a ship in 


CHASING THE FOX. 


107 


his Sunday-school lesson of the previous Sunday, and he 
guessed that a steam-boat might bear that same. 

“I know,” said Johnny, “ it’s Castor ” 

“Oil,” suggested Jack. 

“No — Castor and P, x — Pollux — Castor and Pollux — 
it’s a Bible name.” 

“You’re not giving us the name of Noah’s ark, are you?” 
asked Bob. 

“ I say, boys, that isn’t fair a bit,” growled Pewee, in all 
earnestness. “ I don’t hardly believe that Bible ship’s 
a going now.” Things were mixed in Pewee’s mind, but 
he had a vague notion that Bible times were as much as 
fifty years ago. While he stood doubting, Harry began 
to whip him with the handkerchief, saying: “ I saw her at 
Cincinnati, last week. She runs to Maysvilleand Parkers- 
burg, you goose.” 

After many names had been guessed, and each guesser 
had taken his turn, Ben Berry had to give out. He had 
just heard the name of a “lower country” boat, and was 
sure that it would not be guessed. 

“C p r,” he said. 

“Oh, I know,” said Jack, who had been studying the 
steam-boat column of an old Louisville paper that very 
morning, “it’s the — the — ” and he put his hands over his 
ears, closed his eyes, and danced around, trying to remem- 
ber, while alj the rest stood and laughed at his antics. 
“ Now I’ve got it — the Corn planter ! ” 

And Ben Berry whipped the boys across the road and 
back, after which Jack took the handkerchief. 

“ Oh, say, boys, this is a poor game ; let’s play fox,” 
Bob suggested. “Jack’s got the handkerchief, let him be 
the first fox.” 

So Jack took a hundred yards’ start, and all the boys set 
out after him. The fox led the hounds across the com- 
mons, over the bars, past the “brick-pond,” as it was 


io8 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


called, up the lane into Moro’s pasture, along the hill-side 
to the west across Dater’s fence into Betts’ pasture ; thence 
over into the large woods pasture of the Glade farm. In 
every successive field some of the hounds had run off to 
the flank, and by this means every attempt of Jack to turn 
toward the river, and thus fetch a circuit for home, had been 
foiled. They had cut him off from turning through Moro’s 
orchard or Betts’ vineyard, and so there was nothing for 
the fleet-footed fox but to keep steadily to the west and 
give his pursuers no chance to make a cut-off on him. But 
every now and then he made a feint of turning, which 
threw the others out of a straight track. Once in the 
woods pasture, Jack found himself out of breath, having 
ran steadily for a rough mile and a half, part of it uphill. 
He was yet forty yards ahead of Bob Holliday and Riley, 
who led the hounds. Dashing into a narrow path through 
the underbrush, Jack ran into a little clump of bushes and 
hid behind a large black-walnut log. 

Riley and Holliday came within six feet of him, some 
of the others passed to the south of him and some to the 
north, but all failed to discover his lurking-place. Soon 
Jack could hear them beating about the bushes beyond 
him. 

This was his time. Having recovered his wind, he 
crept out southward until he came to the foot of the hill, 
and entered Glade’s lane, heading straight for the river 
across the wide plain. Pewee, who had perched himself 
on a fence to rest, caught sight of Jack first, and soon 
the whole pack were in full cry after him, down the long, 
narrow elder-bordered lane. Bob Holliday and Riley, 
the fleetest of foot, climbed over the high stake-and-rider 
fence into Betts’ corn-field, and cut off a diagonal to pre- 
vent Jack’s getting back toward the school-house. Seeing 
this movement, Jack, who already had made an extraor- 
dinary run, crossed the fence himself, and tried to make a 


CHASING THE FOX. 


109 


cut-off in spite of them ; but Riley already had got in 
ahead of him, and Jack, seeing the boys close behind and 
before him, turned north again toward the hill, got back 
into the lane, which was now deserted, and climbed into 
Glade’s meadow on the west side of the lane. He now 
had a chance to fetch a sweep around toward the river 
again, though the whole troop of boys were between him 
and the school-house. Fairly headed off on the east, he 
made a straight run south for the river shore, striking into 
a deep gully, from which he came out panting upon the 
beach, where he had just time to hide himself in a hollow 
sycamore, hoping that the boys would get to the westward 
and give him a chance to run up the river shore for the 
school-house. 

But one cannot play the same trick twice. Some of 
the boys stationed themselves so as to intercept Jack’s 
retreat toward the school-house, while the rest searched 
for him, beating up and down the gully, and up and 
down the beach, until they neared the hollow sycamore. 
Jack made a sharp dash to get through them, but was 
headed off and caught by Pewee. Just as Jack was 
caught, and Pewee was about to start homeward as fox, 
the boys caught sight of two steam-boats racing down the 
river. The whole party was soon perched on a fallen 
sycamore, watching first the Swiftsure and then the 
Ben Franklin, while the black smoke poured from 
their chimneys. So fascinated were they with this excit- 
ing contest that they stayed half an hour waiting to see 
which should beat. At length, as the boats passed out 
of sight, with the Swiftsure leading her competitor, it 
suddenly occurred to Jack that it must be later than the 
school-hour. The boys looked aghast at one another a 
moment on hearing him mention this ; then they glanced 
at the sun, already declining in the sky, and set out for 
school, trotting swiftly in spite of their fatigue. 


no 


THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


What would the master say? Pewee said he didn’t 
care — it wasn’t old Ball, and they wouldn’t get a whip- 
ping, anyway. But Jack thought that it was too bad to 
lose the confidence of Mr. Williams. 


Pronounce : Favorite (fa'-vor-it), not favonte, as in some places. 
Mis-hap'. Scourge (skurje). Di-ag'-o-nal. Extraordinary (eks- 
tror'-din-a-ry). Sycamore (sik'-a-more). Aghast (a-gahst'). 

Plies, makes regular trips as a boat. Mishaps, accidents, misfort- 
unes. Navigation, the movement of boats and ships on a river, lake, 
and sea. To interrupt the navigation of a river is to prevent boats from 
passing. Evergreen, having green leaves or blades all the year round. 
Blue-grass, a species of grass which presents a blue appearance when in 
blossom. Stake-and-rider fence, a fence of rails with stakes, each 
having one end in the ground and slanted across the fence so that one stake 
crosses another where it rests on the top of the fence. In the crotches 
made by these upright stakes, where they cross one another, a horizontal 
rail is laid called the “rider.” Full cry, a pack of hounds when tracking 
a fox eagerly and uttering their characteristic sounds are said to be “ in 
full cry.” Diagonal, slanting toward some other line, cat-a-cornered. 
Sycamore, in America, this word means the plane-tree or button-wood, 
which flourishes especially in the vicinity of water-courses, and when very 
large is often hollow, with an opening at one side. Aghast, stupefied 
with amazement. 

Say “ elder-bordered lane” rapidly. What does elder-bordered mean ? 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

CALLED TO ACCOUNT. 

Successful hounds, having caught their fox, ought to 
have come home in triumph ; but, instead of that, they 
came home like dogs that had been killing sheep, their 
heads hanging down in a guilty and self-betraying way. 

Jack walked into the school-house first. It was an 
hour and a half past the time for the beginning of school. 


CALLED TO ACCOUNT, 


nr 


He tried to look unconcerned as he went to his seat. 
There stood the teacher, with his face very calm but very 
pale, and Jack felt his heart sink. 

One by one the laggards filed into the school-room, 
while the awe-stricken girls on the opposite benches, and 
the little ABC boys, watched the guilty sinners take 
their places, prepared to meet their fate. 

Riley came in with a half-insolent smile on his face, as 
if to say : “ I don’t care.” Pewee was sullen and bull- 
doggish. Ben Berry looked the sneaking fellow he was, 
and Harry Weathervane tried to remember that his father 
was a school-trustee. Bob Holliday couldn’t help laugh- 
ing in a foolish way. Columbus had fallen out of the 
race before he got to the “ brick-pond,” and so had re- 
turned in time to be punctual when school resumed its 
session. 

During all the time that the boys, heated with their 
exercise and blushing with shame, were filing in, Mr. 
Williams stood with set face and regarded them. He was 
very much excited, and so I suppose did not dare to re- 
prove them just then. He called the classes and heard 
them in rapid succession, until it was time for the spelling- 
class, which comprised all but the very youngest pupils. 
On this day, instead of calling the spelling-class, he said, 
evidently with great effort to control himself : “ The girls 
will keep their seats. The boys will take their places in 
the spelling-class.” 

Riley’s lower jaw fell — he was sure that the master 
meant to flog them all. He was glad he was not at the 
head of the class. Ben Berry could hardly drag his feet 
to his place, and poor Jack was filled with confusion. 
When the boys were all in place, the master walked up 
and down the line and scrutinized them, while Riley cast 
furtive glances at the dusty old beech switches on the wall, 
wondering which one the master would use, and Pewee 


1 12 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


was trying to guess whether Mr. Williams’ arm was strong, 
and whether he “would made a fellow take off his coat” 
or not. 

“Columbus,” said the teacher, “you can take your 
seat.” 

Riley shook in his shoes, thinking that this certainly 
meant a whipping. He began to frame excuses in his 
mind, by which to try to lighten his punishment. 

But the master did not take down his switches. He 
only talked. But such a talk ! He told the boys how 
worthless a man was who could not be trusted, and how 
he had hoped for a school full of boys that could be re- 
lied on. He thought there were some boys, at least — and 
this remark struck Jack to the heart — that there were some 
boys in the school who would rather be treated as gentle- 
men than beaten with ox-gads. But he was now dis- 
appointed. All of them seemed equally willing to take 
advantage of his desire to avoid whipping them ; and all 
of them had shown themselves unfit to be trusted. 

Here he paused long enough to let the full weight of 
his censure enter their minds. Then he began on a new 
tack. He had hoped that he might have their friend- 
ship. He had thought that they cared a little for his good 
opinion. But now they had betrayed him. All the town 
was looking to see whether he would succeed in conduct- 
ing his school without whipping. A good many would be 
glad to see him fail. To-day they would be saying all 
over Greenbank that the new teacher couldn’t manage his 
school. Then he told the boys that while they were sit- 
ting on the trunk of the fallen sycamore looking at the 
steam-boat race, one of the trustees, Mr. Weathervane, 
had driven past and had seen them there. He had stopped 
to complain to the master. “Now,” said the master, “I 
have found how little you care for me.” 

This was very sharp talk, and it made the boys angry. 


CALLED TO ACCOC/A'T. 


IJ 3 


Particularly did Jack resent any intimation that he was 
not to be trusted. But the new master was excited and 
naturally spoke severely. Nor did he give the boys a 
chance to explain at that time. 

“You have been out of school,” he said, “one hour and 
thirty-one minutes. That is about equal to six fifteen- 
minute recesses — to the morning and afternoon recesses 
for three days. I shall have to keep you in at those six 
recesses to make up the time, and, in addition, as a pun- 
ishment, I shall keep you in school half an hour after the 
usual time of dismission, for three days.” 

Here Jack made a motion to speak. 

“No,” said the master, “I will not hear a word, now. 
Go home and think it over. To-morrow I mean to ask 
each one of you to explain his conduct.” 

With this he dismissed the school, and the boys went 
out as angry as a hive of bees that have been disturbed. 
Each one made his speech. Jack thought it “mean that 
the master should say they were not fit to be trusted. He 
wouldn’t have stayed out if he’d known it was school-time.” 

Bob Holliday said “ the young master was a blisterer,” 
and then he laughed good-naturedly. 

Harry Weathervane was angry, and so were all the rest. 
At length it was agreed that they didn’t want to be cross- 
questioned about it, and that it was better that somebody 
should write something that should give Mr. Williams a 
piece of their mind, and show him how hard he was on 
boys that didn’t mean any harm, but only forgot them- 
selves. And Jack was selected to do the writing. 

Jack made up his mind that the paper he would write 
should be “a scorcher.” 

Pronounce : Resent (re-zent'). Scru'-tin-ized. Punctual (punkt'- 
yu-al). 

Self-betraying, likely to betray one’s sense of guilt. Unconcerned, 

8 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


114 

not anxious or worried. Laggard, one who lags or tarries. Awe-strick- 
en, struck with awe. Sullen, gloomily, angry. Punctual, on time, not 
too late. Scrutinized, examined closely. Furtive, sly, secret, “fur- 
tive glances” are stolen glances. Resent, to be indignant at. Intima- 
tion, hint or suggestion. 

What do you understand by “ bull- doggish ? ” What did Bob Holliday 
mean by calling the school-master a “ blisterer ? ” What kind of a paper 
was Jack thinking of when he proposed to write “a scorcher?” 


CHAPTER XXV. 

AN APOLOGY. 

Of course, there was a great deal of talk in the village. 
The I-told-you-so people were quite delighted. Old 
Mother Horne “always knew that boys couldn’t be man- 
aged without switching. Didn’t the Bible or somebody 
say: ‘Just as the twig is bent the boy’s inclined?’ 
And if you don’t bend your twig, what’ll become of your 
boy ? ” " 

The loafers and loungers and gad-abouts and gossips 
talked a great deal about the failure of the new plan. 
They were sure that Mr. Ball would be back in that school- 
house before the term was out, unless Williams should 
whip a good deal more than he promised to. The boys 
would just drive him out. 

Jack told his mother, with a grieved face, how harsh 
the new master had been, and how he had even said they 
were not fit to be trusted. 

“That is a very harsh word,” said Mrs. Dudley, “but 
let us make some allowances. Mr. Williams is on trial 
before the town, and he finds himself nearly ruined by the 
thoughtlessness of the boys. He had to wait an hour and 
a half with half of the school gone. Think how much he 
must have suffered in that time. And then to have to take 


AN APOLOGY. 


”5 


a rebuke from Mr. Weathervane besides, must have stung 
him to the quick.” 

“Yes, that’s so,” said Jack; “but then he had no 
business to take it for granted that we did it on pur- 
pose.” 

And Jack went about his chores, trying to think of some 
way of writing to the master an address which should be 
severe, but not too severe. He planned many things, but 
gave them up. He lay awake in the night thinking about 
it, and, at last, when he had cooled off, he came to the 
conclusion that, as the boys had been the first offenders, 
they should take the first step toward a reconciliation. But 
whether he could persuade the angry boys to see it in that 
light he did not know. 

When morning came, he wrote a very short paper, some- 
what in this fashion : 

“Mr. Williams. 

“ Dear Sir : We are very sorry for what we did yesterday, and for the 
trouble we have given you. We are willing to take the punishment, for we 
think we deserve it ; but we hope you will not think that we did it on pur- 
pose, for we did not, and we don’t like to have you think so. 

“ Respectfully submitted.’ 

Jack carried this in the first place to his faithful friend 
Bob Holliday, who read it. 

“ Oh, you’ve come down, have you ?” said Bob. 

“ I thought we ought to,” said Jack. “ We did give him 
a great deal of trouble, and if it had been Mr. Ball, he 
would have whipped us half to death.” 

“We shouldn’t have forgot and gone away at that time 
if old Ball had been the master,” said Bob. 

“That’s just it,” said Jack ; “that’s the very reason why 
we ought to apologize.” 

“All right,” said Bob, “I’ll sign her,” and he wrote 
“ Robert M. Holliday,” in big letters at the top of the 


1 16 THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 

column intended for the names. Jack put his name under 
Bob’s. 

But when they got to the school-house it was not so 
easy to persuade the rest. At length, however, Johnny 
Meline signed it, and then Harry Weathervane, and then 
the rest, one after another, with some grumbling, wrote 
their names. All subscribed to it excepting Pewee and 
Ben Berry and Riley. They declared they never would 
sign it. They didn’t want to be kept in at recess and after 
school like convicts. They didn’t deserve it. 

“Jack is a soft-headed fool,” Riley said, “to draw up 
such a thing as that. I’m not afraid of the master. I’m 
not going to knuckle down to him, either.” 

Of course, Pewee, as a faithful echo, said just what 
Riley said, and Ben Berry said what Riley and Pewee said ; 
so that the three were quite unanimous. 

“Well,” said Jack, “ then we’ll have to hand in our pe- 
tition without the signatures of the triplets.” 

“ Don’t you call me a triplet,” said Pewee ; “ I’ve got as 
much sense as any of you. You’re a soft-headed triplet 
yourself ! ” 

Even Riley had to join in the laugh that followed this 
blundering sally of Pewee. 

When the master came in, he seemed very much trou- 
bled. He had heard what had been said about the affair 
in the town. The address which Jack had written was ly- 
ing on his desk. He took it up and read it, and immedi- 
ately a look of pleasure and relief took the place of the 
worried look he had brought to school with him. 

“ Boys,” he said, “ I have received your petition, and I 
shall answer it by and by.” 

The hour for recess came and passed. The girls and 
the very little boys were allowed their recess, but nothing 
was said to the larger boys about their going out. Pewee 
and Riley were defiant. 


AN APOLOGY. 


117 

At length, when the school was about to break up for 
noon, the master put his pen, ink, and other little articles 
in the desk, a'nd the school grew hushed with expect- 
ancy. 

“This apology,” said Mr. Williams, “which I see is in 
John Dudley’s handwriting, and which bears the signature 
of all but three of those who were guilty of the offence 
yesterday, is a very manly apology, and quite increases 
my respect for those who have signed it. I have suffered 
much from your carelessness of yesterday, but this apol- 
ogy, showing, as it does, the manliness of my boys, has 
given me more pleasure than the offence gave me pain. 
I ought to make an apology to you. I blamed you too 
severely yesterday in accusing you of running away in- 
tentionally. I take all that back.” 

Here he paused a moment, and looked over the peti- 
tion carefully. 

“ William Riley, I don’t see your name here. Why is 
that ? ” 

“ Because I didn’t put it there.” 

Pewee and Ben Berry both laughed at this wit. 

“ Why didn’t you put it there ? ” 

“ Because I didn’t want to.” 

“ Have you any explanation to give of your conduct 
yesterday ? ” 

“No, sir ; only that I think it’s mean to keep us in be- 
cause we forgot ourselves.” 

“ Peter Rose, have you anything to say ? ” 

“Just the same as Will Riley said.” 

“ And you, Benjamin ? ” 

“Oh, I don’t care much,” said Ben Berry. “Jack was 
fox, and I ran after him, and if he hadn’t run all over 
creation and part of Columbia, I shouldn’t have been late. 
It isn’t any fault of mine. I think Jack ought to do the 
staying in.” 


n8 THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 

“ You are about as old a boy as Jack,” said the master. 
“ I suppose Jack might say that if you and the others 
hadn’t chased him, he wouldn’t have run ‘all over crea- 
tion,’ as you put it. You and the rest were all guilty of a 
piece of gross thoughtlessness. All excepting you three 
have apologized in the most manly way. I therefore re- 
move the punishment from all the others entirely hereaf- 
ter, deeming that the loss of this morning’s recess is pun- 
ishment enough for boys who can be so manly in their 
acknowledgments. Peter Rose, William Riley, and Ben- 
jamin Berry will remain in school at both recesses and for 
a half-hour after school every day for three days — not only 
for having forgotten their duty, but for having refused to 
make acknowledgment or apology.” 

Going home that evening, half an hour after all the 
others had been dismissed, the triplets put all their griefs 
together, and resolved to be avenged on Mr. Williams at 
the first convenient opportunity. 


Pronounce : Con'-victs. Unan'-i-mous. Gos'-sips. De-fi'-ant. 
Intentionally (in-ten'-shun-al-ly). 

Gad-abouts, people who go from place to place. Gossips, people 
who go from house to house tattling and telling news. Rebuke, a pointed 
reproof for some real or supposed fault. Convict, a person convicted 
or proved guilty of a crime. Unanimous, agreeing in opinion. Triplets, 
three born at the same time. Sally, a witty remark or an attempt at wit. 
Defiant, showing a readiness to quarrel. Intentionally, on purpose. 

What kind of people are the “ I-told-you-so people ? ” What is it to 
“ knuckle down to ” any one ? (The knees were formerly called knuckles 
and this may explain the expression, which means to submit to, as though 
one said, “ kneel down to.”) Why is Pewee said to be a “ faithful echo? ’’ 
(The proverb, “Just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined,” is what Mrs. 
Home is thinking of, but she gets it wrong. It is not in the Bible.) 


KING'S BASE AND A SPELLING-LESSON. 


119 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

KING’S BASE AND A SPELLING-LESSON. 

As the three who usually gave the most trouble on the 
play-ground, as well as in school, were now in detention 
at every recess, the boys enjoyed greatly their play during 
these three days. 

It was at this time that they began to play that favor- 
ite game of Greenbank, which seems to be unknown al- 
most everywhere else. It is called “ king’s base,” and 
is full of all manner of complex happenings, sudden sur- 
prises, and amusing results. 

Each of the boys selected a base or goal. A row of 
sidewalk trees were favorite bases. There were just as 
many bases as boys. Some boy would venture out from 
his base. Then another would pursue him ; a third would 
chase the two, and so it would go, the one who left his 
base latest having the right to catch. 

Just as Johnny Meline was about to lay hold on Jack, 
Sam Crashaw, having just left his base, gave chase to 
Johnny, and just as Sam thought he had a good chance to 
catch Johnny, up came Jack, fresh from having touched 
his base, and nabbed Sam. When one has caught an- 
other, he has a right to return to his base with his pris- 
oner, unmolested. The prisoner now becomes an active 
champion of the new base, and so the game goes on un- 
til all the bases are broken up but one. Very often the 
last boy on a base succeeds in breaking up a strong one, 
and, indeed, there is no end to the curious results attained 
in the play. 

Jack had never got on in his studies as at this time. 
Mr. Williams took every opportunity to show his liking 


120 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


for his young friend, and Jack’s quickened ambition soon 
put him at the head of his classes. It was a rule that the 
one who stood at the head of the great spelling-class on 
Friday evenings should go to the foot on Monday, and 
so work his way up again. There was a great strife be- 
tween Sarah Weathervane and Jack to see which should 
go to the foot the oftenest during the term, and so win a 
little prize that Mr. Williams had offered to the best 
speller in the school. As neither of them ever missed a 
word in the lesson, they held the head each alternate Fri- 
day evening. In this way the contest bade fair to be a 
tie. But Sarah meant to win the prize by fair means or 
foul. 

One Friday morning before school-time, the boys and 
girls were talking about the relative merits of the two 
spellers, Joanna maintaining that Sarah was the better, 
and others that Jack could spell better than Sarah. 

Oh ! ” said Sarah Weathervane, “Jack is the best spell- 
er in school. I study till my head aches to get my less- 
on, but it is all the same to Jack whether he studies or not. 
He has a natural gift for spelling, and he spends nearly 
all his time on arithmetic and Latin.” 

This speech pleased Jack very much. He had stood at 
the head of the class all the week, and spelling did seem 
to him the easiest thing in the world. That afternoon he 
hardly looked at his lesson. It was so nice to think he 
could beat Sarah Weathervane with his left hand, so to 
speak. 

When the great spelling-class was called, he spelled the 
words given to him, as usual, and Sarah saw no chance to 
get the coveted opportunity to stand at the head, go down, 
and spell her way up again. But the very last word given 
to Jack was sacrilege , and, not having studied the lesson, he 
spelled it with e in the second syllable and i in the last. 
Sarah gave the letters correctly, and when Jack saw the 


UNCLAIMED TOP-STRINGS. 


121 


smile of triumph on her face, he guessed why she had flat- 
tered him that morning. Hereafter he would not depend 
on his natural genius for spelling. A natural genius for 
working is the best gift. 


Pronounce : Base (not baste). Sacrilege (sac'-ri-lej, not sac'-re-lij). 

Detention, a state of being detained, or kept back, or kept in. Com- 
plex, complicated, intricate. Unmolested, unharmed — it here means 
without being caught by another player. Champion, one who fights for 
any person or cause. Attained, arrived at, obtained. Relative, com- 
parative. Coveted, greatly desired. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

UNCLAIMED TOP- STRINGS. 

With a sinking heart, Jack often called to mind that 
this was his last term at school. The little money that 
his father had left was not enough to warrant his continu- 
ing ; he must now do something for his own support. 
He resolved, therefore, to make the most of his time under 
Mr. Williams. 

When Pewee, Riley, and Ben Berry got through with 
their punishment, they sought some way of revenging 
themselves on the master for punishing them, and on Jack 
for doing better than they had done, and thus escaping 
punishment. It was a sore thing with them that Jack had 
led all the school his way, so that, instead of the whole 
herd following King Pewee and Prime Minister Riley 
into rebellion, they now “knuckled down to the master,” 
as Riley called it, under the lead of Jack, and they even 
dared to laugh slyly at the inseparable “ triplets.” 

The first aim of Pewee and company was to get the bet- 
ter of the master. They boasted to Jack and Bob that 


122 


THE H00S1ER SCHOOL-BOY. 


they would fix Mr. Williams some time, and gave out to 
the other boys that they knew where the master spent his 
evenings, and they knew how to fix him. 

When Jack heard of this, he understood it. The teacher 
had a habit of spending an evening, now and then, at Doc- 
tor Lanham’s, and the boys no doubt intended to play a 
prank on him in going or coming. There being now no 
moonlight, the village streets were very dark, and there 
was every opportunity for a trick. Riley’s father’s house 
stood next on the street to Dr. Lanham’s ; the lots were 
divided by an alley. This gave the triplets a good chance 
to carry out their designs. 

But Bob Holliday and Jack, good friends to the teacher, 
thought that it would be fun to watch the conspirators 
and defeat them. So, when they saw Mr. Williams going 
to Doctor Lanham’s, they stationed themselves in the dark 
alley on the side of the street opposite to Riley’s and took 
observations. Mr. Williams had a habit of leaving Doctor 
Lanham’s at exactly nine o’clock, and so, just before nine, 
the three came out of Riley’s yard, and proceeded in the 
darkness to the fence of Lanham’s dooryard. 

Getting the trunk of one of the large shade-trees be- 
tween him and the plotters, Jack crept up close enough to 
guess what they were doing and to overhear their conver- 
sation. Then he came back to Bob. 

“They are tying a string across the sidewalk on Lan- 
ham’s side of the alley, I believe,” whispered Jack, “so as 
to throw Mr. Williams head foremost into that mud-hole at 
the mouth of the alley.” 

By this time the three boys had finished their arrange- 
ments and retreated through the gate into the porch of 
the Riley house, whence they might keep a lookout for 
the catastrophe. 

“ I’m going to cut that string where it goes around the 
tree,” said Bob, and he crouched low on the ground, got 


UNC LA I MED TOP - STRINGS. 


123 


the trunk of the tree between him and the Riley house, 
and crept slowly across the street. 

“ I’ll capture the string,” said Jack, walking off to the 
next cross-street, then running around the block until he 
came to the back gate of Lanham’s yard, which he entered, 
running up the walk to the back-door. His knock was 
answered by Mrs. Lanham. 

“ Why, Jack, what’s the matter ? ” she asked, seeing him 
at the kitchen-door, breathless. 

“I want to see Susan, please,” he said; “ and tell Mr. 
Williams not to go yet a minute.” 

“ Here’s a mystery,” said Mrs. Lanham, returning to 
the sitting-room, where the teacher was just rising to say 
good-night. “ Here’s Jack Dudley, at the back-door, out 
of breath, asking for Susan, and wishing Mr. Williams not 
to leave the house yet.” 

Susan ran to the back door. 

“ Susan,” said Jack, “ the triplets have tied a string from 
the corner of your fence to the locust-tree, and they’re 
watching from Riley’s porch to see Mr. Williams fall 
into the mud-hole. Bob is cutting the string at the tree, 
and I want you to go down along the fence and untie 
it and bring it in. They will not suspect you if they see 
you.” 

“ I don’t care if they do,” said Susan, and she glided out 
to the cross-fence which ran along the alley, followed it to 
the front, and untied the string, fetching it back with her. 
When she got back to the kitchen-door she heard Jack 
closing the alley-gate. He had run off to join Bob, leav- 
ing the string in Susan’s hands. 

Doctor Lanham and the master had a good laugh over 
the captured string, which was made of Pewee’s and 
Riley’s top-strings, tied together. 

The triplets did not see Susan go to the fence. They 
were too intent on what was to happen to Mr. Williams. 


124 


THE HO OSIER SCIIOOL-BOY. 


When, at length, he came along safely through the dark- 
ness, they were bewildered. 

“You didn’t tie that string well in the middle,” growled 
Pewee at Riley. 

“Yes, I did,” said Riley. “ He must have stepped over.” 

“ Step over a string a foot high, when he didn’t know it 
was there ? ” said Pewee. 

“ Let’s go and get the string,” said Ben Berry. 

So out of the gate they sallied, and quickly reached the 
place where the string ought to have been. 

“ I can’t find this end,” whispered Pewee by the fence. 

“The string’s gone !” broke out Riley, after feeling up 
and down the tree for some half a minute. 

What could have become of it ? They had been so near 
the sidewalk all the time that no one could have passed 
without their seeing him. 

The next day, at noon-time, when Susan Lanham brought 
out her lunch, it was tied with Pewee’s new top-string — 
the best one in the school. 

“That’s a very nice string,” said Susan. 

“ It’s just like Pewee’s top-string,” cried Harry Weatli- 
ervane. 

“ Is it yours, Pewee?” said Susan, in her sweetest tones. 

“ No,” said the king, with his head down ; “ mine’s at 
home.” 

“I found this one, last night,” said Susan. 

And all the school knew that she was tormenting Pe- 
wee, although they could not guess how she had got his 
top-string. After a while, she made a drive into her pocket, 
and brought out another string. 

“ Oh,” cried Johnny Meline ; “ where did you get that ? ” 

“ I found it.” 

“ That’s Will Riley’s top-string,” said Johnny. “ It was 
mine. He cheated me out of it by trading an old top that 
wouldn’t spin.” 


V 


THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL. 


I2 5 

“That’s the way you get your top-strings, is it, Will? 
Is this yours ?” asked the tormenting Susan. 

“ No, it isn’t.” 

“ Of course it isn’t yours. You don’t tie top-strings 
across the sidewalk at night. You’re a gentleman, you 
are ! Come, Johnny, this string doesn’t belong to any- 
body ; I’ll trade with you for that old top that Will gave 
you for a good string. I want something to remember 
honest Will Riley by.” 

Johnny gladly pocketed the string, and Susan carried 
off the shabby top, to the great amusement of the school, 
who now began to understand how she had come by the 
two top-strings. 


Pronounce : In-sep'-ar-a-ble. Con-spir'-a-tors. In-tent'. Lo- 
cust-tree (taking care to sound both t’s). 

Inseparable, not to be separated. Conspirators, persons who con- 
spire, or agree together, to accomplish some unworthy object. Proceeded, 
went. Plotters, those who have formed a plan for evil. Catas'-tro- 
phe, a disaster, especially one which comes at the end of a series of events 
or of a plot. Crouched, bending down, stooping low. Intent, having 
the mind eagerly fixed on a certain thing. Sallied, went forth. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL, AND THE LAST CHAPTER OF 
THE STORY. 

It was the last day of the spring term of school. With 
Jack this meant the end of his opportunity for going to 
school. What he should learn hereafter he must learn by 
himself. The money was nearly out, and he must go to 
work. 

The last day of school meant also the expiration of the 
master’s authority. Whatever evil was done after school- 


126 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


hours on the last day was none of his business. All who 
had grudges carried them forward to that day, for thus 
they could revenge themselves without being called to ac- 
count by the master the next day. The last day of school 
had no to-morrow to be afraid of. Hence, Pewee and his 
friends proposed to square accounts on the last day of 
school with Jack Dudley, whom they hated for being the 
best scholar, and for having outwitted them more than once. 

It was on the first day of June that the school ended, 
and Mr. Williams bade his pupils good-by. The warm 
sun had by this time brought the waters of the Ohio to 
a temperature that made bathing pleasant, and when the 
school closed, all the boys, delighted with liberty, rushed 
to the river fora good swim together. In that genial cli- 
mate one can remain in the water for hours at a time, and 
boys become swimmers at an early age. 

Just below the village a raft was moored, and from this 
the youthful swimmers were soon diving into the deep 
water like frogs. Every boy who could perform any feat 
of agility displayed it. One would turn a somersault in 
the water, and then dive from one side of the raft to an- 
other, one could float, and another swim on his back, 
while a third was learning to tread water. Some were 
fond of diving toes downward, others took headers. “ The 
little fellows” who could not swim kept on the inside of 
the great raft and paddled about with the aid of slabs used 
for floats. Jack, who had lived for years on the banks of 
the Wildcat, could swim and dive like a musquash. 

Mr. Williams, the teacher, felt lonesome at saying good- 
by to his school ; and to keep the boys company as long 
as possible, he strolled down to the bank and sat on the grass 
watching the bathers below him, plunging and paddling 
in all the spontaneous happiness of young life. 

Riley and Pewee— conspirators to the last — had their 
plans arranged. When Jack should get his clothes on, 


THE LAST DA Y OF SCHOOL . 


127 


they intended to pitch him off the raft for a good wetting, 
and thus gratify their long-hoarded jealousy, and get an 
offset to the standing joke, about doughfaces and ghosts 
which the town had at their expense. Ben Berry, who 
was their confidant, thought this a capital plan. 

When at length Jack had enjoyed the water enough, 
he came out and was about to begin dressing. Pewee and 
Riley were close at hand, already dressed, and prepared 
to give Jack a farewell ducking. 

But just at that moment there came from the other end 
of the raft, and from the spectators on the bank, a wild, 
confused cry, and all turned to hearken. Harry Weather- 
vane’s younger brother, whose name was Andrew Jack- 
son, and who could not swim, in dressing, had stepped too 
far backward and gone off the raft. He uttered a despair- 
ing and terrified scream, struck out wildly and blindly, 
and went down. 

All up and down the raft and up and down the bank 
there went up a cry : “Andy is drowning!” while every- 
body looked for somebody else to save him. 

The school-master was sitting on the bank, and saw the 
accident. He quickly slipped off his boots, but then he 
stopped, for Jack had already started on a splendid run 
down that long raft. The confused and terrified boys 
made a path for him quickly, as he came on at more than 
the tremendous speed he had always shown in games. 
He did not stop to leap, but ran full tilt off the raft, fall- 
ing upon the drowning boy and carrying him completely 
under water with him. Nobody breathed during the two 
seconds that Jack, under water, struggled to get a good 
hold on Andy and to keep Andy from disabling him by 
his blind grappling of Jack’s limbs. 

When at length Jack’s head came above water, there 
was an audible sigh of relief from all the on-lookers. But 
the danger was not over. 


128 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


“Let go of my arms, Andy!” cried Jack. “You’ll 
drown us both if you hold on that way. If you don’t let 
go I’ll strike you.” 

Jack knew that it was sometimes necessary to stun a 
drowning person before you could save him, where he 
persisted in clutching his deliverer. But poor frightened 
Andy let go of Jack’s arms at last. Jack was already ex- 
hausted with swimming, and he had great difficulty in 
dragging the little fellow to the raft, where Will Riley and 
Pewee Rose pulled him out of the water. 

But now, while all were giving attention to the rescued 
Andy, there occurred with Jack one of those events which 
people call a cramp. I do not know what to call it, but it 
is not a cramp. It is a kind of collapse — a sudden exhaus- 
tion that may come to the best of swimmers. The heart 
insists on resting, the consciousness grows dim, the will- 
power flags, and the strong swimmer sinks. 

Nobody was regarding Jack, who first found himself un- 
able to make even an effort to climb on the raft ; then his 
hold on its edge relaxed, and he slowly sank out of sight. 
Pewee saw his sinking condition first, and cried out, as did 
Riley and all the rest, doing nothing to save Jack, but 
running up and down the raft in a vain search for a rope 
or a pole. 

The school-master, having seen that Andy was brought 
out little worse for his fright and the water he had swal- 
lowed, was about to put on his boots when this new alarm 
attracted his attention to Jack Dudley. Instantly he threw 
off his coat and was bounding down the steep bank, along 
the plank to the raft, and then along the raft to where 
Jack had sunk entirely out of sight. Mr. Williams leaped 
head first into the water and made what the boys after- 
ward called a splendid dive. Once under water he 
opened his eyes and looked about for Jack. 

At last he came up, drawing after him the unconscious 






HOLLIDAY CARRIES HOME HIS FRIEND 




THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL. I2g 

and apparently lifeless form of Jack, who was taken from 
the water by the boys. The teacher despatched two boys 
to bring Dr. Lanham, while he set himself to restore con- 
sciousness by producing artificial breathing. It was some 
time after Dr. Lanham’s arrival that Jack fully regained 
his consciousness, when he was carried home by the 
strong arms of Bob Holliday, Will Riley, and Pewee, in 
turn. 

And here I must do the last two boys the justice to say 
that they called to inquire after Jack every day during the 
illness that followed, and the old animosity to Jack was 
never afterward revived by Pewee and his friends. 

On the evening after this accident and these rescues, 
Dr. Lanham said to Mrs. Lanham and Susan and Mr. 
Williams, who happened to be there again, that a boy was 
wanted in the new drug-store in the village, to learn the 
business, and to sleep in the back room, so as to attend 
night-calls. Dr. Lanham did not know why this Jack 
Dudley wouldn’t be just the boy. 

Susan, for her part, was very sure he would be ; and 
Mr Williams agreed with Susan, as, indeed, he generally 
did. 

Dr. Lanham thought that Jack might be allowed to at- 
tend school in the daytime in the winter season, and if the 
boy had as good stuff in him as he seemed to have, there 
was no reason why he shouldn’t come to something some 
day. 

“ Come to something!” said Susan. “Come to some- 
thing ! Why, he’ll make one of the best doctors in the 
country yet.” 

And again Mr. Williams entirely agreed with Susan. 
Jack Dudley was sure to go up to the head of the class. 

Jack got the place, and I doubt not fulfilled the hope of 
his friends. I know this, at least, that when, a year or so 
after, his good friend and teacher, Mr. Williams, was mar- 
9 


130 


THE HO OSIER SCHOOL-BOY. 


lied to his good and stanch friend, Susan Lanham, Jack’s 
was one of the happiest faces at the wedding. 

Pronounce : Somersault (sum'-mer-sault). A-gil'-i-ty. Musquash 
(mus'-quosh). Spon-ta'-ne-ous. Hoard'-ed. Con-fi-dant'. Per-sist'- 
ed (not per-zist-ed). Consciousness (con'-shus-ness). Artificial (ar'- 
ti-fish-al). An-i-mos'-i-ty. 

Expiration, running out, ceasing. Outwitted, defeated, or got the 
advantage of by superior ingenuity. Raft, a collection of timbers or 
boards fastened together so as to be floated from one place to another. 
Moored, attached to the shore, anchored, or otherwise fixed to one place 
in the water. Agility, nimbleness, activity. Tread water, to keep the 
head above water by a particular motion of the feet. Musquash, a 
muskrat (the Indian name formerly much used). Spontaneous, coming 
from natural feelings without any outward cause. Hoarded, collected and 
secretly laid by in store. Confidant, one to whom secrets are told. 
Audible, that can be heard. Persisted, continued, persevered. Col- 
lapse, a sudden failing of the powers of life. Relaxed, loosened. Con- 
sciousness, the knowledge that we feel and think and are in existence. 
In heavy sleep or in a swoon we do not know anything, not even our own 
existence. When one “comes to” consciousness, the power of knowing, 
feeling, and thinking is restored. Artificial breathing, breathing pro- 
duced by raising the arms so as to open the lungs and draw in air, and 
then pressing the chest so as to force the air out of the lungs again. Ani- 
mosity, enmity, dislike. 


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